Associate Professor Jason Rebillot has contributed an essay to the latest volume of the Journal of Architectural Education. Edited by Martin Bressani (McGill University) and Aaron Sprecher (Technion Israel Institute of Technology), JAE 73:1 Atmospheres collects a series of perspectives on the deliberate construction of atmospheres and environments. In his text entitled 鈥淭he Quiet Hum of an Electronic Landscape鈥� Rebillot continues his work unpacking Andrea Branzi鈥檚 speculative project Agronica, reading its atmospheric qualities as part of a broader critique of urban-industrial society. In their introduction, theme editors Bressani and Sprecher suggest that Rebillot鈥檚 account shows 鈥済reat acumen鈥� in describing the project鈥檚 particulars.
From the issue鈥檚 description:
Atmosphere聽is a term of protean elusiveness, describing a phenomenon so evanescent and devoid of borders that our best instinct when involved with the practical world of architecture might be to avoid it as much as possible. Yet, the word imposes itself on all aspects of architectural criticism that describe the way space affects the beholder. Atmosphere, understood in the broad sense of a psychosomatic climate, is the overall perceptual, sensory, and emotive impression of a space or a situation. Philosophers of atmosphere describe it as the affective power of feelings, the spatial bearer of mood. As an analytical concept, atmosphere gives some measure of objectivity to our grasp of feelings in our surroundings while avoiding a conception of moods as mere projections of private mental states.