Atmospheric Spaces: Spatial Engagement in Echoes of the Earth and Synchronicity
When I first enter the room, I follow a small pathway, and my eyes struggle in the darkness. My senses are strained, but I can feel the vibrations of sound from a distance and begin to feel excited in anticipation of a new experience. A dim light emitted from afar assaults my eyes, but as they gradually adjust to the darkness a multitude of colours begins to fill the room. After a while, my body becomes accustomed to the intensity, and excitement starts to guide my movements. Then, I realise I have already been transported to another space, surrounded by atmospheric sensations. This describes what I experienced at two exhibitions: Refik Anadol’s Echoes of the Earth (16 February 2024 – 7 April 2024) at Serpentine North in London, and UVA’s Synchronicity (12 October 2023 – 17 March 2024), particularly Our Time 1×3 (2023) and Edge of Chaos (2023) at 180 Strand. As this description shows, both exhibitions present ways of perceiving and responding to art installation by extending the classical norms of experience from the theatre, museum, and cinema, while questioning a much broader spectrum of engagement with the exhibition. They invite viewers not to remain fixed in front of the screen but to move and sense around the artwork, posing questions about two approaches to shaping surroundings with projection lights and installations that transform the exhibition room into sensational forms. These spaces become open, multiple, relational, and always becoming, encompassing the spatial unconscious and its layers of atmospheres.
In her earlier book Atlas of Emotion (2018),[1] which theoretically links the visual aspect of architecture and the modes of representation in the visual arts, Giuliana Bruno argues that architectural spaces are dynamic environments that have a primal power to capture the body as a stimulator of memory and physical events, in ways that allow us to encounter visual projection that facilitate connection and the sharing of personal experiences. In her later book Atmospheres of Projection(2022), she further explores the intersection of material culture, spatial sensation, and haptic qualities in relation to bodies, space, and the projection of light and images in the practice of projection art. She argues that light and air act as agents of ambiance, as ‘active, conductive forces that affect perception’,[2] in which the viewer’s body moves through the simulated path ‘to discover and reveal all the lapses of memory and consciousness’.[3] In this sense, the sensations produced by light and sound from the projector pass through and embrace the viewer’s body as agents of unfixed, floating, and flexible atmospheres of intersubjective and cultural memory, ‘shown to be a vital atmosphere of transit and transmission, as well as situatedness, that profoundly transforms space and our perceptions’.[4]
This spatial medium, or atmospheric landscape, as Hermann Schmitz contends, simultaneously cultivates bodily self-awareness and a sense of presence within an environment defined by powerful emotional forces, generated by specific agents such as sound and illumination. In this state of awareness, sensations are situated within the space, conceived as part of the space, dissolve into it, and breathe with it. Tonino Griffero suggests, in the ‘Introduction’ to Atmospheres(2024), that Schmitz’s concept should be understood through ‘affective powers’ filled with the presentness of qualitative impressions, where feelings are permeating the space, and they are sensed through the corporeal bodies all at once.[5] It creates impressive spatial quality that is an ‘outwardly detached and internally consistent whole’,[6] which in the language of atmospheres are ‘quasi-things’[7] or ‘half-entities’.[8] Therefore, the vibrations of light and air that grafted onto the site of the exhibition, and the sense of ‘being present’, generate an affective force that heightens the body’s sensitivity to its surroundings, fostering the environmental mood and enhancing spatial awareness. This sensation encourages various ways of moving, acting, and repositioning, as bodies attune to and absorb emotional resonances from the external environment. In line with this understanding, this review will explore the concept of atmosphere by focusing on the experience of exhibitions, questioning how the exhibition becomes a medium for the production of atmosphere. Specifically, it will examine how the relationship between the image and the world – ranging from memories of nature to sensory containers – collides with spaces, engaging with aesthetic realities.
Collective memories of nature in echoes of the earth
Fig. 1: Echoes of the Earth (photographed by the author).
Refik Anadol’s Echoes of the Earth (2024) is a site-specific project that extensively covers gallery walls with AI-generated images derived from the Large Nature Model. Anadol employs a data-driven aesthetic, using visual data collected from various forest biomes through technologies such as LiDAR and photogrammetry. This approach offers a way to demystify the rapidly evolving generative digital image environment that dominates our everyday lives, while also facilitating a deeper understanding of one of the most complex systems: nature. Although data-driven practices are not novel – precedents include works such as Ryoji Ikeda’s generative visual and audio art, Casey Reas’ procedural visualisations of forms, and Sofia Crespo’s simulations of organic deformation, which reveal the biased nature of biological visualisations – this piece demonstrates a distinctive ability to transform the actual into the virtual. By collecting and controlling visual data from a qualitative environmental perspective, it translates the physical world into a new sensory environment.
The first striking feature of the installation is its vast collection of photographs from around the globe. At first glance, the dense array of tiled images makes it difficult to discern specific details, but the subtle intricacies quickly capture attention. The shapes shift so rapidly and fluidly that distinguishing between a bird, an animal, or a flower seen just moments earlier becomes challenging. However, unlike complete dissolution, the forms in this work clearly articulate movement within change. The shapes of animals and plants linger just long enough to be recognisable before transitioning into the next. Thus, nature’s forms do not entirely collapse; rather, they transform, maintaining their essence even through continuous change. As the details blur and colours merge, a vast forest gradually emerges. Rather than adhering to a human-centred understanding of intelligence, the work transcends what Anadol calls the ‘Newtonian restrictions of our imagination’, presenting nature as an autonomous entity that exists beyond human perception.[9] The exhibition’s uniqueness lies in its deconstruction of traditional concepts of nature, unlocking the transformative potential of affective intensity and offering a new perspective on landscape formation at the crossroads of visual art and technology. It materialises psychic experiences and creates unprecedented haptic memories for viewers. Thus, the work encapsulates not the fixed form of nature, but the intense life force of nature’s memory – constantly shifting and adapting.
Fig. 2: Echoes of the Earth (photographed by the author).
In an online conversation at the MIT Open Documentary Lab in 2022, Anadol articulated his understanding of data as memories that are not static recollections but ever-changing interpretations of past events. He referred to ‘the directions of the nature or memories of nature in the form of pigmentation’,[10] creating ‘imaginary brushes that interact with this volume of data’.[11] It is a collaboration, he describes, employing
data as a pigment and paint with a thinking brush that is assisted by artificial intelligence in architectural frameworks as canvases, and creates with machines to make buildings dream and hallucinate.[12]
The movement of particles underlying the image generation is inspired by data on flora, fungi, and fauna collected from over sixteen global rainforest locations. This highlights the ways in which technology transforms our perception of the natural world, a shift imposed by computing on humanity. For him, the data is not merely numerical or informational, but a form of memory capable of painting ‘any shape, and any speed, any colour, add texture’, and this liberation of data, as he explains, has allowed him and his team to move beyond information.[13] This exhibition constructs an atmospheric landscape of dreaming nature from the invisible to the visible, the virtual to the tangible, and the lost to the possible, thereby reconfiguring the architecture of the moving image. It is interspersed with memories of various kinds; despite being artificially collected, his photographs are natural memories, evoking a form of recollection, projecting a certain nostalgia that cannot be undone, and reconfiguring it within the space of imagination.
In the Artist Conversation at Serpentine, Anadol elaborates on the installation process, explaining how the lighting is precisely calibrated to produce the illusion of a third dimension. This arrangement, which spans entire walls, enables for an exploration of the environmental qualities inherent in both nature and architecture. The use of multiple positional screens – on the ceiling, surrounding walls with sixteen projectors, and standing monitors – combined with a darkened surround further amplifies the experience of being in the space. Here, the video transforms the architectural space into a canvas,[14] emphasising the dynamic perception of ecosystems in diverse global forests. More significantly, the artist emphasises that the crucial aspect of this spatial design is to create a sense of ‘togetherness […] by the idea of transforming built environments’.[15] The images that once filled the walls move to the ceiling in another room, while elsewhere the setup consists of multiple standing monitors, creating brief moments of contemplation before the viewer’s gaze becomes fully immersed. Therefore, as Andrea Pinotti critiques the dominant referentialist paradigms that perceive images merely as representations of reality, this exhibition should not be understood as a simple translation of immersive environments from the real world. Rather, it challenges conventional notions of nature by reconstructing absorptive and reflective experiences that feel indirect and immediate.[16]
Fig. 3: Monitor display of Echoes of the Earth (photographed by the author).
The newly constructed pigments, though composed of projections and monitors, are picturesque landscapes that appear to exist somewhere in the world; yet they feel intimate and emotional, conveying landscapes we have lost, currently possess, and will soon encounter. What remains, however, is the relationship between humanity and nature – the memory of nature that Anadol ‘paints’ into these new forms of landscape. These landscapes are composed as projections of collective moments of nature that dissolve into the space, while simultaneously engaging with the emotional atmosphere that the viewer projects onto them. This dual character of nature, both conservative and progressive, raises critical questions about the memory of nature and its connection to the social memory of nature. From the walls and corners, a new lightscape transports the viewer into atmospheric memories that cannot be defined by any single emotion or feeling, but are in a constant state of mutation. This is, indeed, the most distinctive aspect of Anadol’s work: he transforms our perception of environments into comprehensible patterns and figures of cumulative assemblages. These images do not merely represent nature in an immersive, entertaining way; instead, they traverse the physical forest, pass through layers of memory, and re-emerge as new configurations – a re-envisioning of nature that prompts reflection on its potentialities. In this spatial dream, he encapsulates the memories of our planet, allowing us to critically engage with and cherish its diverse landscapes and the vibrant forms of life they sustain. This raises further questions: How does this architecture of memory, materialised through light and form, permeate or even hallucinate, as the artist suggests, transforming into various forms of expression? What does this newly visible or even tangible geography of the world mean.
Synchronised sensation
If Refik Anadol draws upon the perception and memory of nature within an architectural framework, UVA’s exhibition Synchronicity creates spaces that manipulate our sensations through the integration of performance of light, sound, and movement, unfolding alongside physical installations. These elements coalesce to shape the viewer’s auditory and visual experience as they navigate the building. UVA (United Visual Artists), a London-based collective founded in 2003 by British artist Matt Clark, integrates emerging technologies with traditional media, including sculpture, performance, and site-specific installations. This exhibition features the collaborative work of seven contemporary artists: Matt Clark, Will Laslett, Jon Skerritt, Willem Kempers, Lee Sampson, Maximo Recio, and Poppy Heron. In this exhibition, they redesigned exhibition rooms at 180 Strand, linking rooms through narrow, dark pathways that create a mysterious and enveloping atmosphere. This enveloping darkness introduces an element of intrigue and discovery, fostering an initial sense of disorientation as I navigated the space, struggling to locate the next path. As I wandered through the maze-like environment, I was accompanied by ethereal vibrations emanating from distant walls. These perceptible vibrations heightened my auditory awareness and invited me to embrace the uncertainty of the unknown, encouraging a deeper connection with the artwork through embodied sensory experience. The juxtaposition of darkness and light, along with the dynamic interplay of sound and rhythm, creates a captivating, multi-sensory environment that compelled me to engage with the artwork on a profound level, transforming into integral participants in the creative process.
Fig. 4: Frontal view of Edge of Chaos (photographed by the author).
In this exhibition, light is not presented as an artificial source for the image but as a living entity, enchanting viewers through its rhythms and subtle sounds. For instance, Our Time (2023) is situated in a narrow and elongated passage, where multiple light bulbs hang from the ceiling, rhythmically swaying overhead, seemingly unaffected by the laws of gravity. Each bulb produces its own distinct rhythm, at times symmetrical, at times asymmetrical. These oscillating lights continuously fill the room, creating an ambience that exists in the interplay between light and shadow, mesmerising me in the motion that envelops and defines the space. The sound reverberates throughout the room, engaging my body in a visceral manner, as though I were being engulfed by the belly of a whale, urging me to surrender to the overwhelming emotions and inviting me to move and feel in sync with the surrounding environment. Edge of Chaos (2023) abstracts this spatial sensation into a vibration of light, utilising a kinetic pendulum installation programmed with random numbers and chance. The speed of movement, also driven by randomness, results in pendulums horizontally connected by metallic bars moving unpredictably, governed by arbitrary and irrational forces. The interplay between order and chaos generates a clicking sound that heightens the sense of unease within the liminal space. This evokes the struggle of autonomous life forms confined within an invisible cage, as though grappling to be born, transitioning from inanimate to animate, or striving to break free from the constraints of movement. At times expanding, at times contracting (reminiscent of the emotions captured in Francis Bacon’s framed subjects), this creature, constrained by the limits of darkness and subdued light, writhes as it attempts to come into existence, to life.
In an interview with Julia Kaganskiy, Matt Clark said[17]
[t]here are very few things we can fully control, especially if it is something natural or biological. Conceptually, Edge of Chaos highlights this reasoning. Yes, we can influence the world around us to some degree but controlling it; that’s a futile pursuit that often ends in disappointment.
This installation examines the unpredictable and uncontrollable yet sensational aspects of nature by incorporating elements of disarray and cosmic order, challenging the navigation of surroundings while providing a platform for reflecting on sensory experiences of a multi-dimensional, atmospheric engagement. These interactions manipulate the vibrations of air and atmosphere between humans and machines, extending beyond the physical objects and permeating a sense of agitation. The tension of autonomous rampages is conveyed through the use of a fog machine, which evokes sensations of fear, anxiety, unease, and uncertainty. In Edge of Chaos, the fog machine, concealed in complete darkness, heightens this tension by refracting light and altering the viewer’s perception of the space. As the pendulum rotates on its stand, it generates a tremor in the air, which is visualised through the movement of the fog, manifesting the emotions and fears of the non-living creature. The interplay between the light bulbs and the fog machine transcends the traditional boundaries of sterile exhibition spaces, manipulating the environment into an ambiguous lightscape – one not solely defined by the physical presence of objects or the volume they occupy, but by the absorption and attunement created through the subtle interplay of light and fog.
Fig. 5: Side View of Edge of Chaos (photographed by the author).
Matt Clark often refers to UVA’s kinetic sculptures as ‘spatial instruments’, a multimedia practice involving custom software and programmatically controlled kinetic sculptures. This technique creatively employs a wide range of materials to engage the multidimensional and multisensory techniques and create what, I would argue, is a generative atmosphere. Gernot Böhme builds upon Hermann Schmitz’s concept of atmosphere as an essential quality of intersubjectivity at the core of aesthetic practices – one that refers to radiating senses, feelings, and moods applied ‘to persons, spaces, and to nature’. The atmospheric space is composed of non-localised emotions that visit or surround the body, an environment ‘in which we find ourselves (sich finden)’,[18] where the atmosphere ‘breathes’ and ‘exhales’ the emotion, permeating the body and inducing a physical sensation of self in tension and expansion. Giuliana Bruno emphasises spatial and haptic qualities generated by the variable assemblage and aggregation of bodies in forms of mixing and intersecting their very boundaries.[19] In this sense, it is conceived as a ‘network of dynamic, affecting, relational connections between subjects, objects, and space’, which ‘relational dynamics come into being’, thus becoming a collective atmosphere ‘produced by discursive bodies as well as by the technical objects and cultural operations that make up everyday space’.[20] Thus, the spatial instrument Clark describes creates a reciprocity between light and fog, transforming conventional understandings of boundaries of emotions, which can be breathed in through the skin, absorbed by the body, and ultimately reshaping the space into an atmosphere.
Exhibition space as generative atmosphere
Both exhibitions explore the process of spatial transformation through dynamic experiences that challenge perceptions, displace the viewer’s sensations, conveying a profound sense of ‘being here’, enveloped within an organic environment. These spatial designs extend through the atmosphere and its connection to the body, blurring the boundaries between the concrete and the abstract, as well as between reality and possibility. The reconnection between the exhibition site and viewer is achieved through diverse forms and sophisticated audiovisual effects, offering environments that engage with memories of nature and evoke lasting emotional experiences. These elements raise critical questions about producing atmosphere and the role of sensations in that process.
Echoes of the Earth presents a reconstructed and translated geographical and natural worldview, characterised by vivid colours and AI-generated imagery. This ever-shifting space of images invites reflection on the nature of perception and the limitations of our gaze. The constantly changing assemblage of animals and flowers encourages viewers to re-perceive their understanding of the world in a state of indeterminate flux, which represents the memory of nature while simultaneously embodying culture and social mood and affect. In contrast to the external connection evoked by architectural framework, UVA’s exhibition condenses spatial qualities inward, adopting a restrained approach that attunes the senses to and resonates with the rhythms of light that disrupt the darkness of the room. Our Time 1×3 (2023) evokes the sensation of being swallowed by an unnamed creature, while Edge of Chaos envelops the viewer’s body with a pulsating sense of immediate fear, as though something is about to be born. The lights on the small pendulums disrupt and modulate the special sensation, allowing the body to perceive the echoes and reverberations of penetrating emotions. Thus, despite the limited visual stimuli, which disorient spatial awareness, other senses are heightened, intensifying sensitivity to the surroundings.
Both exhibitions expand the art experience by realising their aesthetic concepts of tangible space, placing the body at the centre of an immediate, evolving situation. They remind us that an exhibition space is not a singular, immersive experience but a dynamic environment – constantly shifting and evolving – where multiple senses and emotions converge. While one exhibition evokes collective memories of nature in the context of social and cultural norms, the other resonates with internal feelings manifested through light. The images and lights reshape the exhibition rooms, facilitating an interaction between the tangible and the potential in the production of sensations. In this resonant distinction, both exhibitions create possible worlds, triggering intense experiences as the space continuously transforms into a frame of emotional and memorial force. These exhibitions, or generative atmospheres, challenge us to consider how we actively shape new sensations by engaging with and moving within the image.
Il Sun Moon (Kingston University London)
References
Anadol, R. ‘Art in the Age of Machine Intelligence’, presented at TED, 2020: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxQDG6WQT5s (accessed on 9 June 2024).
Böhme, G. ‘The Aesthetics of Atmospheres’ in Ambiances, atmospheres and sensory experiences of space, edited by J. Thibaud. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.
Bruno, G. Atlas of emotion: Journeys in art, architecture, and film, 3rd edition. New York: Verso, 2018.
_____. Atmospheres of projection: Environmentality in art and screen media. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.
_____. Public intimacy: Architecture and the visual arts, Writing Architecture Series. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007.
Clark, M. and Ünsal, M. ‘An Interview with Matt Clark On “UVA: Edge of Chaos”’, blog, Borusan Contemporary, 29 December 2022: https://www.borusancontemporary.com/en/blog-interview-with-matt-clark-on-uva-edge-of-chaos_2132(accessed on 16 June 2024).
Griffero, T. ‘Introduction: Spatial, Authoritative, Felt-bodily Resonant, Unintentional: Hermann Schmitz’s Atmospheres’ in Atmospheres. Oakville: Casemate Academic, 2024: 9-25.
_____. ‘Is There Such a Thing as an “Atmospheric Turn”? Instead of an Introduction’ in Atmosphere and aesthetics: A plural perspective, edited by M. Tedeschini and T. Griffero. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019: 11-62; doi:10.1007/978-3-030-24942-7.
_____. Quasi-things: The paradigm of atmospheres. Albany: State University of New York, 2017.
MIT Open Documentary Lab. ‘In Conversation with Refik Anadol’ 2022: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B51H6_vVxfw(accessed on 10 June 2024).
Schmitz, H. Atmospheres. Oakville: Casemate Academic, 2024.
Schmitz, H., Müllan, O., and Slaby, J. ‘Emotions Outside the Box – the New Phenomenology of Feeling and Corporeality’, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 10, No. 2, June 2011: 241-259; doi.org/10.1007/s11097-011-9195-1.
Serpentine. ‘In Conversation: Artist Refik Anadol with Mira Lane, Doug Eck and Kay Watson’, 2024: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLRPUw8Pw8k (accessed on 9 June 2024).
[1] She intensely discusses about the architectural interior, structural display, and map of memory, especially in Chapter 5. Bruno 2018, pp. 133-169.
[2] Bruno 2022, p. 47, italic original.
[3] Bruno 2007, xi.
[4] Bruno 2022, p. 12.
[5] Griffero 2024, p. 11.
[6] Schmitz 2024, pp. 126-127.
[7] Griffero 2017.
[8] Schmitz & Müllan & Slaby 2011, p. 246.
[9] Following his exhibition, Anadol engaged in a discussion with Mira Lane, Senior Director of Technology and Society at Google, and Doug Eck, Senior Research Director at Google DeepMind at the Serpentine on 11 March 2024. Serpentine 2024, 00:55:06.
[10] In the Open Documentary Lab Lecture Series at MIT on 7 February 2022, he provided a detailed account of the methods employed in his studio’s site-specific parametric data sculptures and how the collective nature of the data prompts a profound rethinking of our environments. MIT Open Documentary Lab 2022, 00:20:53.
[11] MIT Open Documentary Lab 2022, 00:19:38.
[12] Anadol 2020.
[13] Serpentine 2024, 00:14: 27.
[14] Ibid., 01:01:59.
[15] Ibid., 01:01:26.
[16] While Andrea Pinotti’s concept of environmentalisation is helpful for understanding the crossing boundaries between reality and representation in the newly developing immersive experiences in exhibition spaces, it is important to note that his idea revolves around the immersive head-mounted display, which is not the main focus of this review.
[17] Clark & Ünsal 2022.
[18] Böhme 2017, pp. 17, 181.
[19] Bruno 2022a, p. 58.
[20] Ibid., pp. 12, 21, 58.