Turba

The atmospheric turn that informs this issue can be traced, in its most influential contemporary articulation, to Gernot Böhme's proposal to understand atmospheres as the “in-between” reality shared by perceiver and perceived: a relational, spatial, and affective field that shifts attention away from objects and toward lived experience, presence, and sensuous attunement. The original objective of this turn was not simply to aestheticize ambience, but to rehabilitate the ephemeral dimensions of experience—space, mood, aura, situation—as legitimate sites of artistic, social, and curatorial inquiry, particularly within the live arts where the event exceeds the work. It is therefore fitting that this issue opens with excerpts from the paper that most decisively launched this atmospheric turn, allowing readers to revisit its conceptual foundations before encountering the diverse contemporary transformations that follow.

The expression “atmosphere” is not foreign to aesthetic discourse. On the contrary it occurs frequently, almost of necessity in speeches at the opening of exhibitions, in art catalogues and in eulogies in the form of references to the powerful atmosphere of a work, to atmospheric effect or a rather atmospheric mode of presentation. One has the impression that “atmosphere” is meant to indicate something indeterminate, difficult to express, even if it is only in order to hide the speaker's own speechlessness. It is almost like Adorno's “more,” which also points in evocative fashion to something beyond rational explanation and with an emphasis which suggests that only there is the essential, the aesthetically relevant to be found.

This article examines curation as a practice of staging experiential spaces in which analog and digital mechanisms of action as well as physical and virtual manifestations are tightly entangled. Drawing on theories of aesthetic atmosphere, atmosphere design, digitality, and virtuality, it asks how curatorial decisions can foster intense experiences and shape the creation of intended atmospheres. Rather than focusing on technical implementation, the text addresses how physical and virtual qualities of expression and space can emerge effectively. It shows how curatorial decisions on atmosphere design generate complex aesthetic structures in which sensory-physical perception, digital manifestations, artistic forms of expression, environmental qualities, and social dynamics interact. Selected case studies exemplify strategies for curating atmospheres through the atmospheric composition of physical-virtual experiential spaces.

Errant itineraries: A Counter-Memory and Art-Intervention Walk is a site-specific, art-intervention spurred by ongoing contestations on space and agency within the University of the Philippines Diliman. By foregrounding presence, sensorial attention, and embodied movement, Errant Itineraries refuses the imposed spatial logic of privatization within the university by activating ephemeral art practices that mobilize memory beyond static, hegemonic modes of remembering and resistance. It is an act of “counter-memory” that attempts to transform the campus from a site of extraction into a site of relation, cultivating pathways that lead away from the logics of neoliberalism and emphasizes atmosphere rather than structure. The transformation en-visioned here is hinged on affective co-imagination and political solidarity among participants and spectators alike. We argue that this transformation can be achieved through collaborative movement and installation of ephemera in sites that have been marred by ruin and displacement.

This article explores the concert presentation of fixed media electroacoustic music through the concept of atmosphere. I propose that this concept provides a fertile ground for understanding and appreciating the importance of the concert situation of fixed media electroacoustic music as a collective, situational, holistic and ephemeral experience. I will draw mainly on the work of German philosopher Gernot Böhme (2017) as one of the most prominent philosophers whose work centers on the subject and implications of atmosphere. In doing so, I aim to answer the question why atmosphere is crucial in presenting fixed media music. I will argue that the idiosyncratic features specifically of electroacoustic music bring it even closer to the aesthetics of atmosphere, namely its use of space and the acousmatic situation. According to this understanding, the ultimate goal of a performer or a curator of fixed media music can be considered to be creating an atmosphere in which the music can be fully materialized or actualized and thus experienced.

In January 2026, composer Patrick Frank and dramaturg Emil Kauth met in Zurich, Switzerland, to discuss the art of creating social atmospheres through what Patrick calls “metacompositions.” For almost a decade, Patrick has explored this format in which his compositional sensibility focuses not on individual notes or sounds but on recombining preexisting musical and scenic materials, sourced both from his own work and that of other artists. In his more recent projects, questions of sociality have moved to the foreground. This shift is especially palpable in the “Lied happenings” he has created as part of Liedfest Zürich.

Yaji—literally translated as an “elegant gathering”—does not appear here as a restored historical phenomenon. Rather, it functions as a shift of medium, a reorientation of perceptual structure. It invites a reconsideration of what it means to gather: not as an event but as an ecology; not as a mechanism of display but as a shared rhythm.

Petri-Preis, Axel, & Annette Ziegenmeyer, eds. 2025. Turning Social: The Social-Transformative Potential of Music Mediation. Vienna: Mdw Press.

Wild, Cornelia. 2025. Atmosphären Komponieren: Spüren und Erleben in neuen Konzertformaten [Composing atmospheres: New concert formats as aesthetic and sensory phenomena]. Bielefeld: transcript.