BODY, SPACE, AND ARCHITECTURE
This issue of the Journal of Somaesthetics is dedicated to the embodied and aesthetic potentials of architectural and spatial designs. We invite articles and cases that investigate how “the soma is the crucial medium through which architecture is experienced and created” (Shusterman: 2009, p.290).
How should we approach the world of architecture through the principles of the living sentient body? How do we create a fertile dialog between practical design work and embodied philosophies, such as somaesthetics, pragmatism, or phenomenology? Concretely, how do we design houses, public spaces, interiors, soundscapes, landscapes, augmented realities, virtual spaces, or art installations from the somaesthetic point of view?
For humans, like for all living creatures, the body constitutes and relates to the surrounding world. The notion of living corporality implies a sensorily and cognitively dynamic and differentiated relationship with the world and its various spaces. The living body is always contextualized by its environment (buildings, houses, urban environments, and landscapes).
It is from the soma that our involvement in space takes shape.
Hence, somatic experiences and understandings are––or should be––the very foundation for the design and creation of spaces. A relationship between somaesthetics and architecture, for example, is based upon sensory and agential participation in and with spaces. “If architecture is the articulation of space for the purposes of enhancing our living, dwelling, and experience, then the soma provides the most basic tool for all spatial articulation by constituting the point from which space can be seen and articulated” (Shusterman: 2009, p.288).
New architectural designs of private and public spaces also take into consideration the improvements of our lives. In this regard, the somatic aspect is intended to complement the articulation of architectural space in both the ideation and design phases. How do architects and other designers of spaces engage in a new dialog with the various dimensions of the living body, where aesthetic perceptions are an intrinsic part of active participation in and with the space that surrounds it?
Interesting somatic approaches to the creation of spaces are found in, for example, the idea of atmospheres as being brought forward by new phenomenology (e.g., Schmitz, Böhme, Griffero) or pragmatism (e.g., Dhillon). Space as atmosphere allows us to analyze our perceptual relationship with a building, not only in visual terms but in proprioceptive, kinaesthetic, auditory, and even tactile terms. Or we can analyze it pursuant to Tadao Ando’s application of the concept of shintai 神体, which is understood as an active, pre-reflective, sensational capacity to embrace and feel the world as the content of the self.
The Journal of Somaesthetics invites philosophical articles, theoretical architectural articles, projects, and case studies concerning the current relationship of the body, aesthetics, and architectural design, and the design of spaces, in general. In this regard, we would like to open this call to those who deal with spaces designed and projected starting from the involvement of the living body—especially landscape architects, architects of gardens or urban parks, urban planners, and interior architects. In addition, we would like to invite those who deal with somaesthetic dimensions of art exhibitions, art installation, and urban art. Finally, we would like to invite those who deal with virtual spaces and augmented reality and those who investigate new frontiers of trans-architecture.
The possible topics include, but are not limited to:
. The aesthesis of lived space,
. The use of soma in architectural projects,
. The history of architecture and the implication of aesthetics/somaesthetics aspects,
. The use of the concept of shintai in Asian and Western architecture,
. The significance of atmosphere and kinesphere for designing spaces and their processes,
. The importance of the environment in perceiving designed space,
. Augmented reality and virtual spaces, and
. Art installation/Living body installation.
The Journal of Somaesthetics is a peer-reviewed, online, academic journal devoted to research that advances the interdisciplinary field of somaesthetics, understood as the critical study and meliorative cultivation of the experience and performance of the living body (or soma) as a site of sensory appreciation (aesthesis), practice and realization. The term somaesthetics designates an interdisciplinary framework rather than a philosophical position. It deals, on the one hand, with the aesthetic experience of the body as a practice proper and, on the other hand, with the academic conceptualization of the experiencing body and the body experienced; it approaches the body as the mediating center between sensory experiences and cognitive realization. Somaesthetics describes an integrative field of research where aesthetic experiences meet theories about the body and its biological structures and functions, its phenomenological and epistemological functions, and its position and significances in culture and societies.
For more information about the journal, see http://journals.aau.dk/index.php/JOS
Schedule
Deadline for articles: August 1, 2022
Peer-reviews back: Oct. 1, 2022
Deadline for final articles: Nov. 1, 2022
Publishing: Vinter, 2022
Guidelines
Papers should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words and prepared for blind review, according to the Journal’s style guidelines as indicated on the Journal’s website:
https://somaesthetics.aau.dk/index.php/JOS/about/submissions
Proposed complete articles will be submitted through the link above. Authors should submit a separate cover page indicating the author’s name, institutional affiliation, paper title and abstract, word count, keywords, and contact information.
Contact
(guest editor) Aurosa Alison, aurorarosa.alison@polimi.it +393394772719
Falk Heinrich falk_h@hum.aau.dk
Anne Tarvainen tarvainen.anne@gmail.com
