The Ethnographer as a Smuggler of Atmospheres
Maxime Le Calvé Gave Two Talks at the Sorbonne in Paris
Université Panthéon Sorbonne, photo: Maxime Le Calvé. Copyright: Matters of Activity
In January 2024, Cluster member Maxime Le Calvé was invited to give two talks at the Sorbonne in Paris around the notion of atmospheres in relation to his graphic anthropology practice. Maxime has contributed to importing this notion from German aesthetics to French social sciences, among others with a translation of a reference text by Gernot Böhme in 2018 and the co-edited volume »Exercises d’ambiance.« His new pieces argue for atmospheres' agency on the ethnographer's knowledge production process: »The ethnographer as a smuggler of atmospheres. An anthropology of the arts and sciences influenced by the aesthetics of atmospheres« was presented at the congress Everyday Aesthetics & Collective Gestures on 25th January 2024, and »L’ethnographe en passeur d’ambiances. Une anthropologie des arts et des sciences sous influence de l’esthétique des atmosphere's« at the seminar Sixième sens et quatrième dimension: sensorialités, arts et esthétiques on 26th January 2024, a collaboration between Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Université Paris Nanterre and Université Paris 8.