More-than-human affinitive listening. / Engelmann, Sasha.
In: Dialogues in Human Geography, Vol. 5, No. 1, 11.03.2015, p. 76-79.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
More-than-human affinitive listening. / Engelmann, Sasha.
In: Dialogues in Human Geography, Vol. 5, No. 1, 11.03.2015, p. 76-79.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - More-than-human affinitive listening
AU - Engelmann, Sasha
PY - 2015/3/11
Y1 - 2015/3/11
N2 - It is a definition of elemental air as more than human, wholly ungraspable, and even monstrous, which enlivens Adey’s method of ‘affinitive listening’ to the elemental. The difference between air, as it has been lately addressed, and the element of air is that the latter precedes and exceeds the specific alchemical compositions of air masses, and is not reducible to the descriptions and metaphors with which we attempt to ‘grasp’ air and atmosphere. This commentary experiments with the concept of elemental air and, in particular, the method of affinitive listening, with the help of an atmospheric thing. I propose the Montgolfier infrared balloon as a device that sounds and senses air, generating materials and space times that render explicit, and also ungraspable, the atmospheric envelope around Earth.
AB - It is a definition of elemental air as more than human, wholly ungraspable, and even monstrous, which enlivens Adey’s method of ‘affinitive listening’ to the elemental. The difference between air, as it has been lately addressed, and the element of air is that the latter precedes and exceeds the specific alchemical compositions of air masses, and is not reducible to the descriptions and metaphors with which we attempt to ‘grasp’ air and atmosphere. This commentary experiments with the concept of elemental air and, in particular, the method of affinitive listening, with the help of an atmospheric thing. I propose the Montgolfier infrared balloon as a device that sounds and senses air, generating materials and space times that render explicit, and also ungraspable, the atmospheric envelope around Earth.
KW - affinity
KW - air
KW - atmosphere
KW - more-than-human
U2 - 10.1177/2043820614565872
DO - 10.1177/2043820614565872
M3 - Article
VL - 5
SP - 76
EP - 79
JO - Dialogues in Human Geography
JF - Dialogues in Human Geography
SN - 2043-8206
IS - 1
ER -