Employing Phenomenology of Psychopathology to Inform Architectural Design of Psychiatric Hospitals

We explore how embodied and phenomenological accounts of depression, mania and psychosis can inform architectural design to address disturbances of embodiment commonly experienced in these psychopathologies, fostering the restoration of patients' sensorimotor engagement with their surroundings. By bridging disciplines, our aim is to promote a circular, embodied, and atmospheric perspective on architecture’s therapeutic role in psychiatric care. Drawing predominantly from the work of Thomas Fuchs, we employ phenomenological theories of atmosphere (notably from Hermann Schmitz, Tonino Griffero, and Ralph Brodrück) to understand architecture’s role in shaping multisensory and atmospheric experience. Complementing these insights with perspectives from architects such as Juhani Pallasmaa, Peter Zumthor, and Thomas Thiis-Evensen, we explore how architecture can support patients' sensorimotor cycles and enhance embodied interactions with their environment.
Hereby, we aim to connect the fields of psychiatry and architecture in a way that is theoretically grounded in phenomenology, but also moves towards explicit and concrete descriptions of architecture's role in supporting patient's sensorimotor interactions with surroundings. This aims at employing phenomenology of psychopathology for the design of (psychiatric hospital) architecture as a background for atmospheric perception.
Keywords: psychopathology, phenomenology, atmosphere, psychiatric hospital, multi-sensory architecture

Michele Granzotto ∆ (Social Science, University of Naples "Federico II", Italy)

Social Sensitivity. A Neo-phenomenological Approach to Social Affective Communication

In the context of the current climate crisis, we might ask, “Why, if people know, do nothing?” From this research question, at the intersection of phenomenological sociology and the sociology of the senses, I aim to analyze a particular aspect of collective perception by introducing the theoretical system of Hermann Schmitz's Neue Phänomenologie (NP).
In the first stage, I will introduce NP by bringing into relief its concept of subjectivity, and then delve into the pathetic and affective aspect of social action, thanks to the category of patheur. In the second phase, I will focus on the concept of atmosphere, as understood by the NP. In the third phase I will concentrate on the atmospheric aspect of Georg Simmel's works, particularly “The Sociology of the Senses,” “Sociological Aesthetics,” and “The Metropolis and the Life of the Spirit.” Returning to the initial question, the intent is to open up to a model of neo-phenomenological social theory, capable of giving new keys to the sociological aspect of the relationship between the affective and rational dimensions, and how a certain style of social and perceptual action arises from this. Within this framework, it is possible to observe a synaesthetic sensibility shaped by a social that the person does not control and does not know in toto, but with which he or she communicates affectively: a social capable of orienting sensitivities toward certain stimuli and styles rather than others.
Keywords: Neue Phänomenologie, patheur, social sensitivity, atmosphere, affective communication

Ruth Anderwald and Leonhard Grond (Artistic Research Centre, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna)

Atmospheres of Dizziness. An Artistic-Research Contribution

In the experiencing subject, dizziness emerges as an experiential, as well as a differential category, and shows affinities to the perception of atmospheres. Conceptualised as an unpredictable movement or the sensation of such movement, dizziness alters the perception and position of the soma and, thus, its spatial, social, and atmospheric embeddedness. Dizziness is relational and intra- active, and therefore, never happens to an isolated element but always implicates the surrounding elements, thus impacting the relationship between the experiencing subject and the environment. With Kierkegaard, we hold that a shift in possibilities occurs as dizziness sets in. While trying to gain equilibrium, the experiencing subject, as well as the surroundings, are exposed to and relate generative and destructive dynamics within reciprocal approaches to agency, attunement, and transformation. As a suspension of what we have come to expect as the experienced norm, dizziness occurs situationally, conditionally, and temporarily, creating a temporary expulsion from the habitual. As states of dizziness can be experienced on different scales and in different conditions and expressions, they may appear atmospheric and ephemeral. Atmosphere is here understood as a phenomenon that involves sensorial and bodily components of perception, leading to diverse responses based on different factors such as individual perception, memory, and cultural framing. The proposition of dizziness, as a concept in motion, is rooted in its physiological basis in the vestibular system, our sensory system to detect gravity and the space positioning of our bodies, which we humans share with other species such as mammals, birds, fish, octopods, and plants. The vestibular system has a germane impact on how we navigate the world. It influences not only our soma but also our emotional stability, sensory cognition, and even our sense of self and others – in short, it regulates our relation to the world. From this particular prism, we explore the sensory impact of dizziness and exemplify our artistic research with an artwork, the spatial audio installation work On Certain Groundlessness (2023), which explores the potential for sharing and community-building in atmospheres of dizziness.
Keywords: dizziness, artistic-research, research-creation, atmosphere, somatics