By accident and by design: Composing affective atmospheres in an urban art intervention

Abstract

This article argues that the notion of affective atmosphere provides a privileged access to the study of organizational affect as it relates to a spatial ontology of ‘being-together-in-a-sphere’. Drawing on the study of affective atmospheres in philosophy and cultural geography, we develop a conceptual positioning from which to analyze a musical intervention in the streets and squares of Berlin. The study traces the preparation and enactment of a 2-day music event that breaks with the emotional experience of a ‘mainstream’ classical concert, and instead intervenes in urban atmospheres by mingling music performances with everyday urban life in an attempt to affect chance spectators. Tracing how the concert’s atmospheres emerged through a series of encounters between various bodies and their specific affective capacities, the analysis emphasizes the tension between the possibility of designing and crafting atmospheres and its emergence in erratic, ephemeral, and excessive ways. Therefore, we propose that affective atmospheres make perceptible the potentialities of organizational space and give scope to our feelings as we experience their spatial recomposition. In the conclusion, we emphasize affective atmospheres as a key concept for the critical study of affect, as it advances a politics that attends to new possibilities of feeling and acting collectively in spaces of organizing.

Becoming upbeat: Learning the affecto-rhythmic order of organizational practices

“…Affect is what triggers, for example, excitement, attachment, and disgust (Katila, Laine, & Parkkari, 2019;Pullen, Rhodes, & Thanem, 2017). Among other bodies, the materiality of space has the capacity to generate affective responses in the bodies that encounter with(in) it (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012;Michels & Steyaert, 2017;Reckwitz, 2012;Thrift, 2004). In this dissertation, I argue that examining the affective quality of space is important as it allows us to better the role of space in organizing and to shed new light on organizational power and politics.…”

“…For example, affect is what "hits us" (Fotaki, Kenny, & Vachhani, 2017: 4) when we walk into a meeting room and inexplicably experience a tense, excited or relaxed atmosphere that, in turn, shapes our following interpretations and actions (Brennan, 2004). Although the consequences of affective responses are not predetermined, scholars note that they can be manipulated for example through spatial design and interventions (Thrift, 2004;Michels & Steyaert, 2017).…”

“…For example, affect is what triggers our excitement and passionate attachment (Katila et al, 2019) and forces us to think in new ways (Deleuze, 1994). Like these examples suggest, affect does not operate only in and through relationships between human bodies; instead, it also emerges in relations with nonhuman bodies, such as built environment, material artifacts, animals, plants, and technologies (Gherardi, 2018;Michels & Steyaert, 2017). Thus, affect rejects the division of human and nonhuman bodies: "[a] body can be anything; it can be an animal, a body of sounds, a mind or an idea; it can be linguistic corpus, a social body, a collectivity" (Deleuze, 1988: 27).…”

Sonifying the quantified self: Rhythmanalysis and performance research in and against the reduction of life-time to labour-time

“…Depending on the format, different degrees of participation and spectatorship are possible for the audience, and the boundaries the between these modes can be blurred by the affective nature of audio-visual elements. In terms of affect, sound has a forceful and physical impact of its own (Michels and Steyaert 2017), achieved by means of waves and vibrations which communicate the data in different ways than the apparently objective veneer of number with which we are most familiar in our everyday lives. It was by means of the creation of an affective environment that the 'meaning' of the data we had accumulated could be performed and shared with the audience.…”

Construcción social del miedo en el trabajo: análisis desde la noción de atmósfera afectiva

“…El estudio de los afectos desde estas alternativas teóricas también ha permeado los estudios organizacionales, de los que se han derivado diversas líneas de investigación y propuestas para analizar de manera crítica las emociones (Anderson, 2009(Anderson, , 2014Borch, 2010;Dashtipour & Vidaillet, 2017;Fotaki, Kenny, & Vachhani, 2017;Kenny & Fotaki, 2014;Michels & Steyaert, 2017). No obstante, en la literatura de la administración y organizaciones, el comportamiento organizacional se encuentra como el principal marco analítico para el estudio de las emociones (Barling & Cooper, 2008;Gooty, Gavin, & Ashkanasy, 2009;Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000).…”