Atmospheric Wellbeing: Sensing the More-Than-Human Dynamics of Air

Abstract

Clean air is vital to bodily, social, and planetary wellbeing. This article develops the concept of ‘atmospheric wellbeing’ as a framework for investigating the more-than-human dynamics of air through its affective and sensory qualities. Engaging the new field of critical air studies, the authors explore creative and multisensory social research methods which register the uneven distributions of air quality and the relationships between atmospheric sensing, feeling, and political action. This emerging approach offers new avenues for air quality research and seeds future-focused ideas for understanding and enhancing atmospheric wellbeing through creative means.