Perception Against. Reflecting Ethnographically on the Sensory, Walking, and Atmospheric Turns

Abstract

The paper seeks to contribute to critical reflection on recent trends in cultural anthropology,
the humanities more generally, and ongoing transformations of urban space. The first part
of the paper explores the genealogy of two crucial anthropological approaches to “the life of
the senses,” anthropology of the senses, and sensory anthropology, outlines their relationship
to so-called walking methodologies, and relates them to the recent upsurge of research
in atmospheres. The second part presents selected topics from the described fields in Ljubljana.
More specifically, the paper deals with how, during sensobiographic walking through
the historical city center, Ljubljančani and Ljubljančanke experienced what “atmospheric
transformations” ushered in by Ljubljana’s annual December celebrations/festivities. The
authors conclude that concepts and epistemological frameworks produced or implicated in
the anthropology of the senses/sensory anthropology, as well as in walking methodologies
and atmospheric studies, engender an examination of sensory dimensions of politics and
economy in late capitalism but are appropriated in a reified form for purposes of capital
accumulation.