The attention paid by different disciplines to the observation and perception of space has a long, though fragmented, tradition. A notion that today seems to provide common ground among these various fields of inquiry is that of atmosphere. The concept of atmosphere is gaining increasing attention across cultural and scientific domains, from arts, design, and architecture to philosophy, ecology, and even the hard sciences.

Atmospheres invite a rediscovery of sensory dimensions long neglected by modernity, which privileged language and visual representation. New techniques convert atmospheric data into diverse sensory and visual formats, while notions such as soundscape and smellscape signal a growing recognition of non-visual components in shaping our experience of place. This sensory turn suggests the need to rethink landscape as a scientific notion, since auditory, olfactory, and other dimensions are integral.

At the same time, atmospheres are largely produced by non-human and more-than-human entities, including those that affect us in subtle yet significant ways. Capturing these phenomena requires increasingly complex models and computational tools. Integrating aesthetic, embodied, situated, and subjective approaches with data-driven, mechanized, orthographic, and objective methodologies offer opportunities to innovate in observing, representing, analyzing, and designing the world.

Francesco Bergamo studied Architecture and holds a Ph.D. in Sciences of Design. He is associate professor at the Università Iuav di Venezia, where he teaches Drawing for Product and Visual Design, Data Visualization for Fashion Communication and New Media, and Theory and History of the Representational Methods in Architecture.

His research focuses on the genealogy and forms of contemporary representational artifacts in architecture, design, politics, the arts, and sonic ecology, as well as on the mutual relationship between aural and visual cultures.

He recently co-edited, with Agostino De Rosa and Alessio Bortot, a special issue of AD – Architectural Design titled “In Praise of Penumbra”, and is currently working on a book on the genealogy of optical metaphors in architecture, the arts, and politics.

He coordinates the SSH! (Sound Studies Hub) research group and the LaSD (Laboratorio Strumentale per la Didattica) at Iuav.

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