Organizational Atmospheres: Foam, Affect and Architecture

Organizational Atmospheres
Christian Borch
Architectural Atmospheres: Foam and Affect
It was mentioned above that Sloterdijk argues that the relation between the
co-isolated foam cells is characterized by imitation dynamics and mimetic
infiltration. I will now discuss this relation in more detail and associate it
with the discussion of the spatiality and architecture of organizational foam.
The starting point of this discussion is Sloterdijk’s own major source of
inspiration, namely, Gabriel Tarde. As demonstrated previously, Tarde
conceives of imitation as a kind of somnambulistic suggestion. Suggestion
has two important implications in Tarde. First, it undermines the notion of
individuality (this was shown above). Second, suggestion emphasizes affect
rather than deliberation and conscious choices. Since the social individual,
for Tarde, is akin to a sleepwalker, his or her behaviour is not a result of
purposive action, but rather of ‘semiconscious suggestion’ (Borch, 2007;
Williams, 1982). This means that when Sloterdijk argues that the relation
between foam cells is characterized by imitation, he in fact stresses how crucial
affect is to understanding foam sociality: the semiconscious imitationsuggestion
addresses rather directly the import of affect, emotions, etc. and
how these and related qualities are transmitted from one cell to others. But
how does this transmission take place more specifically? To answer that
question, Teresa Brennan’s brilliant book on The Transmission of Affect
(2004) proves helpful. Indeed, I will argue, Brennan offers an important
way of understanding the link between foam theory’s focus on imitation
and the sphereological interest in atmospheres.
Brennan opens the book by relating architecture and affect, asking ‘[i]s there
anyone who has not, at least once, walked into a room and “felt the atmosphere”?’
(2004: 1). What she claims is that this atmosphere is constituted,
in part at least, by affects. To be more specific, the atmosphere is comprised
by the affective state of those present, and this state can be transmitted to
people who enter the room. This is what happens when you feel the atmosphere.
Crucially, Brennan continues:
The transmission of affect, whether it is grief, anxiety, or anger, is social or
psychological in origin. But the transmission is also responsible for bodily
changes; some are brief changes, as in a whiff of the room’s atmosphere, some
longer lasting. In other words, the transmission of affect, if only for an instant,
alters the biochemistry and neurology or the subject. The ‘atmosphere’ or the
environment literally gets into the individual. (Brennan, 2004: 1)
It is important to stress that no biological reductionism is at play here. Quite
the contrary, the argument is that social and psychological factors generate
specific biological reactions, not the other way around. 7 Further, it is interesting
to note that Brennan’s discussion is aimed in part as a critique of
the notion of self-contained individuality. According to Brennan, it is too
often taken for granted that emotions can go ‘no farther than the skin’ of
the individual person (2004: 2). But, she demonstrates, this assumption
is undermined by a plentitude of studies and, indeed, by the argument
on the transmission of affect. This critical perspective on self-contained
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