Society for Atmospheric Studies

Inaugural Conference · Kobe 2026

Program

23–26 September 2026 · Kobe, Japan

Tentative Program

Streamed event · all times in Japan Standard Time (JST, GMT+9) · online viewing registration to be announced.

Wed 23 Thu 24 Fri 25 Sat 26

Wednesday 23 Sep

Arrivals

Participants arrive through the afternoon and evening. Registration opens on arrival. Free evening.

Thursday 24 Sep

Founding & plenary · ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel

09:00–10:20
Founding

SOFAS Inauguration & First Meeting

Founding · Regulations · Atmospherica (yearbook)

10:20–10:30
PerformanceSam Auinger & katrinem — opening performance · Atmospheric Listening / Breathing In (10 min, indoor)
10:30–11:00
Talk 1

Tonino Griffero

The Unresolved Problems of Atmospherology: Cornerstones or Challenges?

11:00–11:30
Talk 2

David Howes

Sensing Environmental Qualia

11:30–12:00
Talk 3

Lenart Škof

Philosophy of Breath and Atmospheric Ontology

LUNCH (at ANA Crowne Plaza) · 12:00–13:00
13:00–13:30
Talk 4

Bruce Bégout

Time and ambiance. The sense of Passing

13:30–14:00
Talk 5

Shanti Sumartojo

Ineffability, atmospheres, and human-world connection

14:00–14:30
Talk 6

Nicolas Rémy & Evangelia Paxinou

The Suspended Step of the Stork – Ambiance as Hospitality for Modes of Existence

14:30–15:00
Talk 7

Paulo Gajanigo

The digital and the emergent

Coffee break · 15:00–15:20
15:20–15:50
Talk 8

Birgit Breidenbach

The Atmospheric Metaphor

15:50–16:20
Talk 9

Kerstin Thomas

Painting Air: Atmosphere in French Landscape painting around 1800

16:20–16:50
Talk 10

Fabian Heubel 何乏筆

The Ontological Unlocalizability of Atmospheres or Toward an Aesthetic Cultivation of the Between

16:50–17:20
Talk 11

Purushottama Bilimoria

Altered state of breath: pedagogical contours of prāṇa, prāṇayāma, and kuṇḍalinī-yoga, with ramifications for cross-cultural atmospheric studies

17:20–17:50
Talk 12

Shinji Kajitani 梶谷真司

The Communality and Normativity of Emotion as Atmosphere: The Scope of Schmitz’s Theory of Legal Feeling

DINNER (at ANA Crowne Plaza) · 19:00–21:00

Friday 25 Sep

Panels · Kobe University

Room A
Room B
Room C
Gallery / Atelier
09:20–10:40
Panel 1
  • Jessie AlperinFar Above and Below the Depths: Imagining Ecological Seeing in Odilon Redon’s The Red Screen
  • Kahlua Tsunoda 角田かるあBetween the Visible and the Invisible: Reconsidering A. G. Bragaglia’s Theory of Photography
  • Thorsten Botz-BornsteinToxic Kitsch: The Atmospheric Paintings of Thomas Kinkade

+ discussion

Panel 6
  • Sachi Sekimoto 関本幸Aeroception: The Cultural Technique of Reading the Air
  • Yosaku Matsutani 松谷容作Breathing as an Aesthetic Method for Perceiving the Environment: A Case Study of Asthma
  • Florian Goeschke“Like the weather” – toward an atmospheric organology

+ discussion

Panel 11
  • Francesca GrecoKi (気/氣) and Aiki (合氣) in the Japanese Martial Art of Aikidō (合氣道). A Contribution to Bodily Relationality and Atmospheric Studies
  • Cheung Ching Yuen 張政遠Fūdo in the air: connecting Atmospheric Studies and Fūdo Studies
  • Yukiko Kuwayama 桑山裕喜子The Role of Atmospheres in the Praxis of Psychoanalysis

+ discussion

Exhibition

Season Lao 劉善恆 — open all day

curated by Rie Kodera 小寺里枝 & Romaric Jannel 羅馬里克・詹內爾

Coffee break · 10:40–11:00
11:00–12:20
Panel 2
  • Gabi SchilligAgencies of Softness – Atmospheres of Co-Existence
  • Lorenzo MarinucciIs Kawaii an Atmosphere?
  • Manuela de Mattos SalazarVibe Shift: Atmospheric Emotions in Contemporary Life

+ discussion

Panel 7
  • Elisabetta CanepaThe Space In-Between
  • Damien MassonUnlayering the Thousand Leaves of Ambiances
  • Kantaro Ohashi 大橋完太郎The Theory of Ambiance in the works of Jean Baudrillard

+ discussion

Panel 12
  • Andreas RauhCo-presence and actuality: Atmosphere theory and New Materialism
  • Chung-Yen Cheng 鄭中彥Rethink Atmospheric Attunements: Bodies as Qi and More-Than-Human Narratives
  • Nadja Furlan ŠtanteEcological Atmospheres: Ecofeminist Perspectives and Global Inequities

+ discussion

Exhibition

↑ continues

Lunch · Kobe University · 12:20–13:50 · optional Auinger & katrinem campus walk · Gallery: curator presentation I (sign-up)
13:50–15:10
Panel 3
  • Silvina KatzLiterary Atmosphere: Translating Silvina Ocampo’s Fiction through the Body
  • Linjing Jiang 姜林静The Letter H in Schumann’s Myrthen
  • Alberto ParisiRespiratory Poetics: Breath, Atmosphere, and Poetic Form between Europe and Japan

+ discussion

Panel 8
  • Mathieu GaulèneConveying the Invisible Radioactive Atmosphere of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
  • Dieter D. GenskeStudents clean up the atmosphere
  • Malcolm Troon‘Auditory Asides’ – Listening Prismatically

+ discussion

Panel 13
  • Takuya Niikawa 新川拓哉Atmosphere and Wellbeing
  • Tetsushi Nonaka 野中 哲士The reciprocity of the agent and the environment
  • Gorazd AndrejčWittgensteinian moods, disenchantment and scientific objectification

+ discussion

Exhibition

↑ continues

Coffee break · 15:10–15:30
15:30–16:50
Panel 4
  • Julia OstwaldMise-en-Scent: Choreographing Air as Atmospheric Practice
  • Jiang Sanshi 蔣三石Atmosphere, Nature, and Ink Art — Biographical Reflections
  • Chun-Chen Lin 林俊臣Awkwardness and Qi: The Generative Body and Atmospheric Experience in Chinese Calligraphy

+ discussion

Panel 9
  • Ernest Hess-LüttichWhat makes the atmosphere of a neighbourhood? Signs of cityscapes
  • Federico De MatteisThe Climate of Spaces
  • Ola SigurdsonCity as Biotope: On the Atmospheric Experience of the Urban

+ discussion

Panel 14
  • Lukas TrabertHermann Schmitz and his Analysis of Atmospheres
  • Sara BorrielloAtmospheres and Value: On Nature and Moral Significance
  • Ari PurnamaWhat Råså Offers Atmospheric Studies

+ discussion

Workshop

Lorenzo Marinucci

sign-up · 10–12 people

Break · 16:50–17:10 · Rooms A & B
17:10–18:30
Panel 5
  • Yu-lin Lee 李育霖 & Shan-Hui Tiffany Hsu 徐珊惠Bodies in Flight: The Wuxia Gest in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  • Lin Shu-wen 林淑文Utensil (器), Dao (道), and Technique (技): The Aesthetic Practice of Tea-Walking
  • Tomoyo Arisawa 有澤知世江戸戯作におけるデザイン上の雰囲気の演出

+ discussion

Panel 10
  • Madoka Serizawa 芹澤円Playing the Wind: Embodied Wind in the Works of Jenova Chen
  • Pierre-William FregoneseThe Aesthetic of Emptiness and Fullness in Shadow of the Colossus
  • Alexandre DeclosGame Maps and Atmospheres

+ discussion

Panel 15
  • Maximilian HepachFrom Zodiacs to Cyclones: A Brief History of Medical Meteorology
  • Megan KaminskiTender Ground: Weathering, Deep Time, and the Felt Atmosphere of Land
  • Yuho HisayamaOn the Japanese Word tenki: Weather as the Atmospheric Attunement of the World

+ discussion

Curator talk II

Season Lao exhibition

~40 min · sign-up

09:20
Panel 1
  • Jessie AlperinFar Above and Below the Depths: Imagining Ecological Seeing in Odilon Redon’s The Red Screen
  • Kahlua Tsunoda 角田かるあBetween the Visible and the Invisible: Reconsidering A. G. Bragaglia’s Theory of Photography
  • Thorsten Botz-BornsteinToxic Kitsch: The Atmospheric Paintings of Thomas Kinkade

+ discussion

11:00
Panel 2
  • Gabi SchilligAgencies of Softness – Atmospheres of Co-Existence
  • Lorenzo MarinucciIs Kawaii an Atmosphere?
  • Manuela de Mattos SalazarVibe Shift: Atmospheric Emotions in Contemporary Life

+ discussion

13:50
Panel 3
  • Silvina KatzLiterary Atmosphere: Translating Silvina Ocampo’s Fiction through the Body
  • Linjing Jiang 姜林静The Letter H in Schumann’s Myrthen
  • Alberto ParisiRespiratory Poetics: Breath, Atmosphere, and Poetic Form between Europe and Japan

+ discussion

15:30
Panel 4
  • Julia OstwaldMise-en-Scent: Choreographing Air as Atmospheric Practice
  • Jiang Sanshi 蔣三石Atmosphere, Nature, and Ink Art — Biographical Reflections
  • Chun-Chen Lin 林俊臣Awkwardness and Qi: The Generative Body and Atmospheric Experience in Chinese Calligraphy

+ discussion

17:10
Panel 5
  • Yu-lin Lee 李育霖 & Shan-Hui Tiffany Hsu 徐珊惠Bodies in Flight: The Wuxia Gest in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  • Lin Shu-wen 林淑文Utensil (器), Dao (道), and Technique (技): The Aesthetic Practice of Tea-Walking
  • Tomoyo Arisawa 有澤知世江戸戯作におけるデザイン上の雰囲気の演出

+ discussion

09:20
Panel 6
  • Sachi Sekimoto 関本幸Aeroception: The Cultural Technique of Reading the Air
  • Yosaku Matsutani 松谷容作Breathing as an Aesthetic Method for Perceiving the Environment: A Case Study of Asthma
  • Florian Goeschke“Like the weather” – toward an atmospheric organology

+ discussion

11:00
Panel 7
  • Elisabetta CanepaThe Space In-Between
  • Damien MassonUnlayering the Thousand Leaves of Ambiances
  • Kantaro Ohashi 大橋完太郎The Theory of Ambiance in the works of Jean Baudrillard

+ discussion

13:50
Panel 8
  • Mathieu GaulèneConveying the Invisible Radioactive Atmosphere of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
  • Dieter D. GenskeStudents clean up the atmosphere
  • Malcolm Troon‘Auditory Asides’ – Listening Prismatically

+ discussion

15:30
Panel 9
  • Ernest Hess-LüttichWhat makes the atmosphere of a neighbourhood? Signs of cityscapes
  • Federico De MatteisThe Climate of Spaces
  • Ola SigurdsonCity as Biotope: On the Atmospheric Experience of the Urban

+ discussion

17:10
Panel 10
  • Madoka Serizawa 芹澤円Playing the Wind: Embodied Wind in the Works of Jenova Chen
  • Pierre-William FregoneseThe Aesthetic of Emptiness and Fullness in Shadow of the Colossus
  • Alexandre DeclosGame Maps and Atmospheres

+ discussion

09:20
Panel 11
  • Francesca GrecoKi (気/氣) and Aiki (合氣) in the Japanese Martial Art of Aikidō (合氣道). A Contribution to Bodily Relationality and Atmospheric Studies
  • Cheung Ching Yuen 張政遠Fūdo in the air: connecting Atmospheric Studies and Fūdo Studies
  • Yukiko Kuwayama 桑山裕喜子The Role of Atmospheres in the Praxis of Psychoanalysis

+ discussion

11:00
Panel 12
  • Andreas RauhCo-presence and actuality: Atmosphere theory and New Materialism
  • Chung-Yen Cheng 鄭中彥Rethink Atmospheric Attunements: Bodies as Qi and More-Than-Human Narratives
  • Nadja Furlan ŠtanteEcological Atmospheres: Ecofeminist Perspectives and Global Inequities

+ discussion

13:50
Panel 13
  • Takuya Niikawa 新川拓哉Atmosphere and Wellbeing
  • Tetsushi Nonaka 野中 哲士The reciprocity of the agent and the environment
  • Gorazd AndrejčWittgensteinian moods, disenchantment and scientific objectification

+ discussion

15:30
Panel 14
  • Lukas TrabertHermann Schmitz and his Analysis of Atmospheres
  • Sara BorrielloAtmospheres and Value: On Nature and Moral Significance
  • Ari PurnamaWhat Råså Offers Atmospheric Studies

+ discussion

17:10
Panel 15
  • Maximilian HepachFrom Zodiacs to Cyclones: A Brief History of Medical Meteorology
  • Megan KaminskiTender Ground: Weathering, Deep Time, and the Felt Atmosphere of Land
  • Yuho HisayamaOn the Japanese Word tenki: Weather as the Atmospheric Attunement of the World

+ discussion

All day
Exhibition

Season Lao 劉善恆 — open all day · curated by Rie Kodera 小寺里枝 & Romaric Jannel 羅馬里克・詹內爾

12:20
Curator talk I

Season Lao exhibition · ~40 min · sign-up (during lunch)

15:30
Workshop

Lorenzo Marinucci · sign-up, 10–12 people

17:10
Curator talk II

Season Lao exhibition · ~40 min · sign-up

Saturday 26 Sep

Closing · ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel

09:00–10:00
Plenary

KOIAS partnership and other announcements

10:00–10:30
Assembly

SOFAS General Assembly — with voting

Break · 10:30–10:45
10:45–11:30
Roundtable

KOIAS Fellows / early-career roundtable

11:30–12:00
Plenary

Closing discussion — the future of Atmospheric Studies

~12:00
ProposalSam Auinger & katrinem — possible closing performance, Atmospheric Listening / Breathing Out, with all participants (under discussion).
Afternoon
OptionalOptional tours — a herb garden with lunch · the Kitano district · a Japanese garden.