Finanziamento dell’UE NextGenerationEU PRIN PNRR 2022 – Atmospheres (ATMOS): What They Are and How They Are Grasped - M4C2 investimento 1.1 Avviso 1409/2022

Imagine to listen to the first movement of Mendelssohn’s symphony n. 4 in A major Op. 90, the “Italian”. What do we exactly hear? Undoubtedly, we hear musical sounds but, and more interestingly, there is an Italian ‘character’ conveyed by the musical notes, namely, we detect a specific and vivid Italian atmosphere in the symphony, regardless knowing or not what is its title. The perception of this Italian atmosphere is essential to the aesthetic appreciation of Mendelssohn’s symphony. To begin with, atmospheres occur not only when we listen to musical sounds but also when listening to environmental sounds (which are the sounds surrounding us in everyday life). Think of the case of a sudden slamming of a door which brings about a sinister and frightful atmosphere; or consider the calm and joyful atmosphere determined, in the case of speech sounds, by listening to our best friend’s voice uttering familiar sentences. Besides, atmospheres take place not only in the auditory field but also when taking into account other sense modalities (vision, taste, olfaction and touch), both when they concern natural or para-natural objects, e.g. landscapes, and aesthetic objects: from design and leisure objects up to full-fledged artworks such as films, novels, paintings, installations and architectural constructions. In these latter cases, aesthetic appreciation is strongly influenced by the atmospheres they create. As its first objective, which is a Metaphysical Objective (MO), ATMOS wants to provide a characterization of what atmospheres are starting from the hypothesis that atmospheres are kinds of relational expressive properties, which are predicated of worldly objects, their bearers, by involving for them two relational poles, i.e., both the environment in which the relevant object is located and the subject who entertains experiences toward that object. ATMOS' second objective is a Phenomenological Objective (PO). It aims at answering the question of how atmospheres can be grasped, starting from how they appear to the subject by taking into account also her alleged emphatic reaction. In general, to study atmospheres by means of an analytical method, involving an investigation mobilizing metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and aesthetics, and their interaction with cognitive sciences; in particular, to test both the relational and the perceptualist account by checking whether they hold of the different kinds of worldly objects atmospheres are usually ascribed to and taking onto account the objects such as natural and artificial landscape, ordinary objects (i.g. tables and chairs), artefactual objects (e.g., cities, design objects, leisure objects), artworks (e.g. architectural objects, installations, movies, musical pieces, paintings, novels). By so doing, the theory of atmospheres may become very useful for people (architects, artists, designers, hospital operators involved in the creation of atmospheres for the determination of human well-being.