Reading
The psychological self spread widely through Japanese medical discourse at the start of the 21st century. It was popularized by American government researchers after WWII through “national character studies.”
During the high economic growth of the 60s and early 70s, somatic self-discipline was still largely aligned with the national good, often through the local intermediary of the corporation for men and the family for women.
Postwar consumerism did begin emphasizing more personal comforts as a reward for industriousness (particularly in advertising) but the larger orientation was still to the collective effort for national prosperity.
MASS CULTURE —>
MICROMASSES: a mix of consumerism, health and more personal and experiential brands of spirituality.
Psychological and somatic forms of self discipline were often presented by journalists, social critics, politicians and other public figures as personal solutions to social problems.
After the downturn in the economy and the implosion of radical politics in the 1960s, the wider population begin seeking out more autonomy in governing their lives, often drawing on psychological and somatic techniques of self in the process.
In a democracy “the state is mediated through the inner freedom of the individual.” - John Locke
There are hints of the somatic turn even among those emphasizing the rise of simulacra. But grand narrative of a unified narrative vision hasn’t gone away and nationalism has proven to be highly resilient.
The social and cultural shifts of the 70s had less to do with the collapse of grand narratives and much more to do with the emerging techniques of self care, somatic techniques that run prior to and in some ways are independent of narrative or political identification.
Global developments in environmental design spurred by “Atmospherics as a Marketing Tool” (Philip Kotler, 1973) Atmospherics describe the effort to design buying environments to produce specific emotional effects that enhance purchase probability.
This evolved into a push for “sensory branding,” the creation of synthetic atmospheres providing specialized moods for target demographics with the aim of indirectly making customers more likely to make a purchase.
THE 80’s — Consumer electronic companies like Sony Sharp and Matsushita (Panasonic) led the world in developing new media formats and new consumer technologies suited to high-density urban living and long train commutes.
With the emergence of the portable audio player, portable video equipment and other environmental media technologies in the 1970s and 1980s, personal media use could now become a routine accompaniment to everyday life and background mood regulation could now function as an extension of self care. These technologies allowed people to choose what media might accompany them throughout the day as they became more affordable, customizable and portable, the possibilities for their use as ambient media increased accordingly.
At the same time came a rising number of of “those who use fiction for the homeostasis of the self.” — With a specific aim of mood regulation.
Reality and fiction have come to be thought of as equivalent insofar as they are material to be utilized for the homeostasis of the self.” — Miyadai Shinji
The turn to somatic self regulation became the guiding principle for the use and development of personal media around this time, whether focused on “reality” or no. A person’s somatic condition is reality within this new understanding of self.
Neoliberal biopolitics pairs freedoms with intensifying demands for self-discipline and self restraint. The emerging private practices of personal mood regulation often, if not always, lined up with larger social demands for healthy, active, emotionally in-control citizens. Neolibralism as an ideology often depends on sustaining the illusion of the autonomous self—independent of social, environmental and technological influence— in order to draw attention away from structural inequities and failures.
Atmospheric attainment has come to serve as a necessary background correlate to this foregrounding of the self. Matusuda Masao proposed in the early 70’s that power was no longer manifesting as a clear struggle between two opposing forces but was increasingly becoming dispersed into the landscape itself, part of the anonymous background infrastructure of everyday life.
“THE AMBIENT DREAM OF SELF DISPERSAL”— The fantasy of a totally autonomous self and the fantasy of merging with the atmosphere are both essential to neoliberal biopolitics.
Roquet suggests we need to learn to “read the air” in a way that better recognizes the forces moving through it. Reading the air means more carefully attending to the ambient determinants of self and realizing there are times when disrupting the given ambience, becoming “meiwaku,” can serve as an important way out from one mood to another. In processes of ‘subjectivation’, subjects come to understand themselves and their social identities through governmental (in the broadest sense) incitements to monitor their own actions in acceptable ways.
THERAPIES OF FREEDOM
“The new techniques of governmentality operate not through the crushing of subjectivity in the interests of control and profit, but by seeking to align political, social and institutional goals within individual self-pleasures and desires, and with the happiness and fulfillment of the self” — Rose
Michael Bull’s study of the use of iPod playlists in the United Kingdom
Atomosphere’s appearance of being outside history serves as one of its most powerful obfuscations. This is surely why atmosphere and exoticism often run together. Trace the strange historical crossfade from utilitarian background music to ambient subjectivation by way of environmental avant-garde.
1876 — Philadelphia’s John Wanamaker Store, one of the first department stores in the US, introduced an organ player to provide “store music” and hired a group of singers to perform as a “store chorus.”
1886, Chicago— An auto-plant experimented with background music in business setting to increase American worksite productivity.
This grew to a frenzy at the turn of the century, under influence of Fredrick Taylor’s “scientific management” theories and the larger flourishing efficiency studies and managerial psychology. (Year?)
While often used to simply ensure productivity, efficiency, docility, and profitability, atmospheric media can just as easily be put to other ends. I suggest we take a more active role in building the kind of atmospheres we want to live within, alongside and through. This is as much a collective question as it is a personal one.
About 70% of people living in Japan currently live in cities, I propose the emphasis on “Reading the air” is also in some ways a product of this environment.
Invention of dynamite (explosive period) — the influence of HG Wells on science fiction and science — (started off writing biology textbooks, articles about world politics… influenced Churchill and all those in the 20’s generation.) He affected people, including George Orwell; (a pen name) — (HG Wells’ real name was George Wells)
Marshall McLuhan wrote of the new environmental communication of the electronic age and on “correalism”
