Book ID: CBB335978115

Atmospheric things: on the allure of elemental envelopment (2018)

unapi

McCormack, Derek P. (Author)


Duke University Press


Publication Date: 2018
Physical Details: 288, index and bibliography
Language: English

In Atmospheric Things Derek P. McCormack explores how atmospheres are imagined, understood, and experienced through experiments with a deceptively simple object: the balloon. Since the invention of balloon flight in the late eighteenth century, balloons have drawn crowds at fairs and expositions, inspired the visions of artists and writers, and driven technological development from meteorology to military surveillance. By foregrounding the distinctive properties of the balloon, McCormack reveals its remarkable capacity to disclose the affective and meteorological dimensions of atmospheres. Drawing together different senses of the object, the elements, and experience, McCormack uses the balloon to show how practices and technologies of envelopment allow atmospheres to be generated, made meaningful, and modified. He traces the alluring entanglement of envelopment in artistic, political, and technological projects, from the 2009 Pixar movie Up and Andy Warhol’s 1966 installation Silver Clouds to the use of propaganda balloons during the Cold War and Google's experiments with delivering internet access with stratospheric balloons. In so doing, McCormack offers new ways to conceive of, sense, and value the atmospheres in which life is immersed. (Publisher)

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Reviewed By

Review Andrew Barnfield (March 2019) Review of "Atmospheric things: on the allure of elemental envelopment". Transfers (pp. 108-109). unapi

Review Kim, Mi Gyung (January 2019) Review of "Atmospheric things: on the allure of elemental envelopment". Technology and Culture (pp. 332-333). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB335978115/

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Authors & Contributors
De Oliveira, Patrick Luiz Sullivan
Brant, Clare
George, Joppan
Cook, Kevin L.
Henry, Matthew
Nord, Philip G.
Concepts
Aeronautics; aviation
Balloons and ballooning
Technology
Technology and culture
Technology and politics
Aircraft; airplanes
Time Periods
18th century
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
20th century, late
17th century
Places
United States
France
Great Britain
Sweden
Spain
New Zealand
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