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Space and Emotion: Building to Feel
Author(s) -
Pernau Margrit
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12170
Subject(s) - materiality (auditing) , situated , space (punctuation) , relation (database) , psychology , aesthetics , cognitive psychology , personal space , communication , social psychology , cognitive science , epistemology , computer science , artificial intelligence , art , philosophy , database , operating system
Emotions are not only expressed but also learned through the body. The body is not the opposite of culture, but a site where culture is played out. This requires a new emphasis on space and spaces. Bodies are necessarily situated in space, and they bear the imprint of the spaces they are moving through and have moved through. Mediated by the body and its senses, different spaces become linked to different emotions. This relation is neither random, nor is it given once and for all: the connection between an emotion and a particular space can change over time, and the same spaces can trigger off vastly divergent emotions in various people. This article discusses the importance of material objects in shaping emotions; it suggests temporalization as the central category to link materiality with knowledge and practices. It then proceeds to a number of case studies related to the built environment of Delhi to show what such an investigation could look like.