New Books Network Birgit Abels and Patrick Eisenlohr, "Atmospheric Knowledge: Environmentality, Latency, and Sonic Multimodality" (U California Press, 2025)
Nov 7, 2025
Join anthropologist Patrick Eisenlohr and musicologist Birgit Abels as they delve into their groundbreaking work on atmospheric knowledge. They explore how atmospheres affect our understanding of the world through somatic, nonverbal cues. Discover the role of sound in creating a sense of belonging in various cultures, from Mauritian Nath recitation to Palauan ocean stewardship. The conversation spans sonic multimodality, urban sonic practices, and the deep connections between atmosphere and identity, revealing how our environments shape the way we know and interact with the world.
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Atmospheres As Alternative Epistemologies
- Atmospheric knowledge describes nonverbal, holistic, felt-bodily ways of knowing environments through sound and practice.
- Birgit Abels and Patrick Eisenlohr argue this challenges dominant, discourse-focused epistemologies in academia.
Latency And The Suggestion Of Motion
- Atmospheres are tied to a temporality of latency: a future-oriented hunch about something not yet manifest.
- The key mechanism is the suggestion of motion which creates felt anticipatory meaning.
Voice Quality Trumps Textual Only Judgments
- In Mauritius, interlocutors emphasized vocal quality over textual details when assessing devotional recitation authenticity.
- Listeners judged recitations by sonic motion metaphors like 'traveling to Medina' rather than only by words.
