Ambiances, Alloæsthesia: Senses, Inventions, Worlds

Congrès

From December 2, 2020 to December 4, 2020

12th International Conference on Voice Physiology and Biomechanics

It aims to consider how the contemporary environmental, social, technological, political and ethical changes are likely to affect the sensitive worlds, their ambiances, and the ways of experiencing them.

This conference brings together more than a hundred scientific contributions coming from an international base of academics, practitioners, artists and PhD students working on ambiances and atmospheres. They offer an up-to-date account of the variety of themes and issues within this field, showcasing the latest research and methodological approaches. Organized in sixteen themed sessions, the presentations examine the ongoing preoccupations, debates, theories, politics and practices of this field, drawing on multidisciplinary expertise from areas as diverse as anthropology, architecture, computer science, cultural studies, design, engineering, geography, musicology, psychology, sociology, urban studies and so on.

Themes & Axes

Entitled "Ambiances, Alloaesthesia: Senses, Inventions, Worlds", the 4th International Congress on Ambiances focuses on the renewal of the forms of feeling in a world that is undergoing major changes. Composed by “allo” which stands for “other, of another kind”, using the term alloaesthesia aim to characterize: other senses, or senses of another kind, and suggests to be comprehensive of the emergence of potential new kinds of senses and sensibilities[1]. This Congress aims to consider how the contemporary environmental, social, technological, political and ethical changes are likely to affect the sensitive worlds, their ambiances, and the ways of experiencing them. How these changes question the research on ambiances and atmospheres, at epistemological, theoretical, methodological and practical levels?

These questions will be addressed through these three thematic axes

Axis 1/ New sensitizations

Present times, on a global scale, are marked by the multiplication of environmental (such as global warming, massive damage to the biosphere, etc.), political and social (as evidenced by the rise of conflicts, the emergence of the "society of vigilance", etc.) emergencies, which are carried in a massive and almost unavoidable way by the media and social networks. Together, they contribute to redefining the landscapes of ordinary life. In what way does this situation, characterized by various threats and associated anxieties, renew our modes of attention, presence and action in the world? How do these attentions redefine the sensitivities, in that they refer to what I am sensitive to (what touches me) and how we become sensitive to (how am I affected)? How do our sensitive experiences reconfigure themselves in these new worlds of uncertainty? How do they crystallize into new ways of designing and managing spaces? And how do these modes circulate and are communicated?

Axis 2/ Human and non-human sensitivities

How can we question the pressures resulting from the evolution of the sensory environment on the non-human sensorium in a world more than ever affected by human actions, which can be designated in certain circumstances as Anthropocene? In what ways can ecological and ethological approaches, through observations on non-human living beings, question potential evolutions of human sensitivity? How, by extension, do they renew the ways of understanding ambiances? Conversely, how are the concept of atmosphere, and how the scientific approaches, on the one hand on architectural and urban ambiances, and on affective atmospheres on the other hand, likely to put into question disciplines that challenge the senses, the action, the interactions between body and environment, grounded within different epistemologies, and other methodological traditions?

Axis 3/ Artificial and extended sensibility

In what ways does the development of technologies allowing the consultation and representation (notably through visualization, auralization, etc.) of a very large amount of information contribute to alter (notably through restriction or extension) our sensitive potential within a datascape? How do the spaces measured, captured, reproduced by machines, sensors and algorithms create new worlds, and new sensory universes for humans? How do physiological alterations (may these be temporary, such as the wearing of augmented reality devices, or durable, such as certain biotechnologies), and prostheses (whether these prostheses are located within the body, or are new holds and affordances provided by spaces) define new sensitive worlds? How do these environments overflow into our daily environments? What resources do works of fiction and anticipation provide to think about these changes? What resources or limitations do these new sensory worlds provide for action?
Beyond this general framework and these three themes, the Congress aims to be representative of the thematic and disciplinary diversity, of the most contemporary researches on Ambiances and Atmospheres. To do so, in addition to three main axis reporesented within the call, the Congress will feature several thematic session (see below).
[1] Using this term beyond its medical definition (i.e. allesthesia means the sensation of a stimulus in one limb that is referred to the contralateral limb) aims to open it to a wider understanding, in order to question its potential articulation to the notion of ambiances.

Thematic Sessions & Panels

Thematic Sessions Overview

Atmosphere, Anthropocene, Urbanity, Sensitivity
Artificial Lighting and Darkness in the Architectural and Urban Pratices
Atmospheres + Design
Body, Culture, Identity
Digital Architecture. Atmospheres in Design and New Responsive & Sensitive Configurations
From a Sensitive Ecology of Ambiances/Atmospheres to a Political Ecology
Infinite Atmospheres? Ethical Dimensions of and for the Design of Public Spaces
Inhabiting Insecurity. Practices and Representations
Physical/Digital Spaces Collisions. So What?
Presencing Atmospheres
Sense and Sensibility of Affective Atmospheres
Sensitive Spaces and Urban Practices
Sensory Experience, Environmental Experience, Political Engagement
Sound Stakes of the Atmosphere
The Way of Ambiances: Scientific Practices, Artistic Practices
What is the Place of Atmospheres in Urban "Renaturation"?

Panels Overview

Curating Urban Sound Parks: an ambiance perspective
Scaling Sensory Experiences: Linking Perspectives from Dance, Occupational Therapy and Urban Design
The Architecture of the Virtual: An Encounter between Cognitive Neurosciences and Architecture

Performances

A house repeated
A performance-game by Seth Kriebel & Zoe Bouras
Sounds of Silence
A short movie by Mohammed Boubezari
Resonant Spaces
A sonic performance by Sofía Balbontín + Mathias Klenner. Collaborators: Natalia Cabrera + Emilio Marx

Workshop

Sound Appetizer

A workshop by RAV (anarcos - rosapalmeida)

Site Web de l'évènement

Date

From December 2, 2020 to December 4, 2020

Localisation

Online event.