Floating in space: teaching atmosphere in human geography

ABSTRACT

This article explores the teaching of atmosphere for undergraduate geography students. Though many scholars have observed an “atmospheric turn” in the discipline, teaching atmosphere in human geography has received less attention. To this end, the article examines the design and delivery of a “floating workshop” that engaged students in thinking and feeling the meteorological and affective qualities of atmosphere. Practically, the floating workshop involved the preparation, launch and floating of two solar-powered balloon-like sculptures made by the international artistic community Aerocene. In contrast to practices of mapping or remote sensing with aerial devices like kites or drones that are familiar to geographical pedagogy, this creative practice-based workshop foregrounded sensual and affective observations of atmosphere, from the feeling of wind speeds to the transmission of emotions. This shared atmospheric experience and pedagogical experiment linked theory with practice, activated situated learning processes, and generated critical inquiry into the affective, aesthetic and material dimensions of air and atmosphere.

KEYWORDS:

• Atmosphere
• Air
• Affect
• Floating
• Workshop

Acknowledgements

My profound thanks go to my students in Atmospheres: Nature, Culture, Politics for their brilliant contributions, effervescent enthusiasm and willingness to experiment. Thank you also to the two Aerocene Community experts featured in this article, Grace Pappas and Jol Thoms. I am indebted to Tomás Saraceno for many years of collaboration and friendship, and for lending me an Aerocene Float Kit for use in my teaching in the U.K. Warm thanks to the anonymous English department peer observer who attended the floating workshop and reflected with me on its outcomes. Finally, I am grateful to my Royal Holloway Geography Department colleagues who have supported me with care and criticality in imagining, designing and evaluating an unusual creative practice-based workshop for our undergraduate students.

Disclosure statement

Sasha Engelmann completed her PhD fieldwork in the Studio of Tomás Saraceno, the founder of Aerocene. She continues to collaborate with Aerocene in her teaching and research.

Notes

1. Reflections on the weather dependency included consideration of the weather as a collaborator in the workshop; discussions of the meaning of failure; and contingency planning. If the weather conditions were not appropriate, I would have given the following week’s lecture in place of the week of the workshop, and we would have tried again one week later.

2. While the Aerocene sculpture is flying, a local Aerocene wifi network and a simple mobile phone-based browser search enables grounded viewers to see a live transmission of video and data from the Raspberry Pi on the payload.