Paul Roquet
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816692446
- eISBN:
- 9781452953625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816692446.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
The introduction opens with the Jellyfish ambient DVD as an example of ambient mood regulation, before moving into a genealogy of thinking on atmosphere and its relation to self. Roquet draws on ...
More
The introduction opens with the Jellyfish ambient DVD as an example of ambient mood regulation, before moving into a genealogy of thinking on atmosphere and its relation to self. Roquet draws on Foucault’s ‘techniques of the self’ to explore how media serve as tools of what he calls ambient subjectivation.Less
The introduction opens with the Jellyfish ambient DVD as an example of ambient mood regulation, before moving into a genealogy of thinking on atmosphere and its relation to self. Roquet draws on Foucault’s ‘techniques of the self’ to explore how media serve as tools of what he calls ambient subjectivation.
Paul Roquet
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816692446
- eISBN:
- 9781452953625
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816692446.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
Contemporary life is increasingly shaped through attunement to the atmospheric affordances of the media environment. Ambient Media delves into the use of music, video, film, and literature as tools ...
More
Contemporary life is increasingly shaped through attunement to the atmospheric affordances of the media environment. Ambient Media delves into the use of music, video, film, and literature as tools to tune this atmospheric self. The book traces the emergence of mood-regulating media in Japan from the environmental art and Erik Satie boom of the 1960s and 70s to the more recent emphasis on “healing” styles. Focusing on how ambience reshapes those dwelling within it, Ambient Media explores the working of atmospheres designed for affective calm, rhythmic attunement, embodied security, and urban coexistence. The book argues for understanding ambient media as a specifically neoliberal response to mood regulation, serving as a way to atmospherically shape collective behavior while providing resources for emotional autonomy and attention restoration at the individual level. Ambient Media considers the adaptive side of atmosphere as an approach to self-care and social mobility. At the same time, the book considers the limits of mood regulation and the low-affect lifestyle when it comes to interpersonal life. Musicians, video artists, filmmakers, and writers in Japan have expanded on Brian Eno’s original idea of a style affording “calm, and a space to think,” providing materials to cultivate sensory serenity within the uncertain horizons of the contemporary social landscape. Offering a new way of understanding Japanese social demands to “read the air,” the book documents both the adaptive and the alarming sides of this turn to mediated moods.Less
Contemporary life is increasingly shaped through attunement to the atmospheric affordances of the media environment. Ambient Media delves into the use of music, video, film, and literature as tools to tune this atmospheric self. The book traces the emergence of mood-regulating media in Japan from the environmental art and Erik Satie boom of the 1960s and 70s to the more recent emphasis on “healing” styles. Focusing on how ambience reshapes those dwelling within it, Ambient Media explores the working of atmospheres designed for affective calm, rhythmic attunement, embodied security, and urban coexistence. The book argues for understanding ambient media as a specifically neoliberal response to mood regulation, serving as a way to atmospherically shape collective behavior while providing resources for emotional autonomy and attention restoration at the individual level. Ambient Media considers the adaptive side of atmosphere as an approach to self-care and social mobility. At the same time, the book considers the limits of mood regulation and the low-affect lifestyle when it comes to interpersonal life. Musicians, video artists, filmmakers, and writers in Japan have expanded on Brian Eno’s original idea of a style affording “calm, and a space to think,” providing materials to cultivate sensory serenity within the uncertain horizons of the contemporary social landscape. Offering a new way of understanding Japanese social demands to “read the air,” the book documents both the adaptive and the alarming sides of this turn to mediated moods.
Karin Bijsterveld, Eefje Cleophas, Stefan Krebs, and Gijs Mom
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199925698
- eISBN:
- 9780199350155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199925698.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Psychology of Music
This chapter tells, notably for Germany,how automotive journalists and car mechanics initially educated drivers to carefully listen to the humming engines and transmission clutter of their ...
More
This chapter tells, notably for Germany,how automotive journalists and car mechanics initially educated drivers to carefully listen to the humming engines and transmission clutter of their automobiles in order to notice and understand the causes of automotive problems. As soon as car mechanics developed into a full profession, however, drivers were told to restrict themselves to monitory listening and leave diagnostic listening to experts. This shift happened between the 1920s and 1950s, the same era in which in-built car radio became fashionable. Initially, car radio met with societal concern: would it endanger the attention span of drivers? Soon, however, car radio developed into a sonic companion for long drives, and, from the 1960s onwards, into a system regulating the emotions of drivers in difficult traffic situations. The listening driver thusturned away from the sound of their cars proper, but tothe encapsulating sound of car radio.Less
This chapter tells, notably for Germany,how automotive journalists and car mechanics initially educated drivers to carefully listen to the humming engines and transmission clutter of their automobiles in order to notice and understand the causes of automotive problems. As soon as car mechanics developed into a full profession, however, drivers were told to restrict themselves to monitory listening and leave diagnostic listening to experts. This shift happened between the 1920s and 1950s, the same era in which in-built car radio became fashionable. Initially, car radio met with societal concern: would it endanger the attention span of drivers? Soon, however, car radio developed into a sonic companion for long drives, and, from the 1960s onwards, into a system regulating the emotions of drivers in difficult traffic situations. The listening driver thusturned away from the sound of their cars proper, but tothe encapsulating sound of car radio.