Introduction

Adkins, Monty; Cummings, Simon

doi:10.5920/beyondairports.introduction

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“…Generally viewed as a type of atmospheric background sound, ambient music is intended to be used for instrumental purposes: as a quasi-therapeutic 'tint' to an environment that can effectuate a sense of focus, relaxation or mood enhancement. 30 It can be described quite well using McCormack's definition of affective atmosphere as something 'that registers in and through sensing bodies while also remaining diffuse, in the air, ethereal'. 31 In David Toop's genealogy of the genre Ocean of Sound, 32 he argues that, historically, ambient is a product of developments in Western music of the 20th Century that saw a turn towards introspective, contemplative sounds that, precisely in their airy diffuseness, demanded less attention from listeners.…”

Section: Ambient Music's Intimate Microspheresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immunological atmospheres: Ambient music and the design of self-experience

Burdon

2023

cultural geographies

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This paper examines the cultural popularity of ‘ambient music’ playlists on digital streaming platforms as a paradigm of the technical fabrication of atmospheres and the modulation of affect in some of the media environments of contemporary capitalism. Ambient music names a style of non-intrusive, gentle background music designed to assist the listener in relaxing or focussing on work. At the centre of the paper is the argument that ambient music demonstrates how the intimate tonalities of human behaviour are increasingly shaped through media technologies in ways that hold significant implications for how we feel and perceive our senses of being in the world today. Developing this argument, the paper advances two claims. First, drawing on the work of Peter Sloterdijk, that ambient music exemplifies the ‘immunological’ character of atmospheric envelopment. Second, that ambient music points towards the role of digital technologies capable of supporting new atmospheric envelopments as facilitating what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari call ‘investments of desire’, new conjunctions between flows of information, behaviours, value and affects that are central to the processes of contemporary capitalism. Finally, the paper speculates on ambient music in its relation to the atmospheric conditions of life in contemporary capitalist societies.

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Section: Ambient Music's Intimate Microspheresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immunological atmospheres: Ambient music and the design of self-experience

Burdon

2023

cultural geographies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Introduction

Cited by 1 publication

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Immunological atmospheres: Ambient music and the design of self-experience

Immunological atmospheres: Ambient music and the design of self-experience

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