»Nervous Listening«: Neuroceptive Ethnographies of Atmospheres

Entering the Central Laboratory that day, participants were greeted with balloons to inflate with their breath and a 285-hertz “Theta” sound bath, which they were invited to explore haptically through to the red latex bubbles. Blown into tension, they made us subtly reactive to air vibration. Thus attuned, we started listening nervously to the atmosphere around, and to each other’s vocal utterances. In the spirit of contemporary experimental anthropology, emphasizing the intersection of art, science, and lived experience, our workshop "Nervous Listening: Neuroceptive Ethnographies of Atmospheres" strived to explore the ethereal fabric of our surroundings through the collective and individual exploration of neuro-phenomenological experience. Marina gave the introductory impulse, holding a balloon unsuspectedly in her hand, which had already become part of her ephemeral sensory being for that day.

The thematic foundation of our workshop was nervous listening, a methodological approach to feeling, recording, and interpreting the atmospheric phenomena that impact and are impacted by our nervous systems. It bridged the current research of Marina Peterson on cloud seeing and “weathering uncertainties”, the fieldwork of Maxime Le Calvé on nerves as hyposubjects to be “befriended,” and the design program of Clemens Winkler on cloud making. This involved paying particular attention to the intricate interplay between our inner climate and the outer ecological atmospheres, delving into the notion of neuroception, a concept imported from the polyvagal discourses of Stephen Porges and Deb Dana. The methodology was also imbued with a fascination for the platypus—an intriguing creature renowned for its use of electroreception—serving as a symbolic reminder of our aspiration to expand our perceptual bandwidth and redefine the realms of human experience.