Wave : exploring sound solastalgia
Kopljar, Sandra LU
and Koldkjær Højlund, Marie
(2021)
- Abstract
- Nature sounds are often seen as relaxing, and understood as reconnecting our minds and bodies with something primeval. Such sounds are used for stress recovery in the fields of medicine and psychology, as well as in our personal meditation app downloaded on our phone. At the same time a continuous climate anxiety has invaded many personal experiences in relation to nature environments and phenomena. An anxiety that seems impossible to escape.
Glen Albrecht (2005) coined the notion of “solastalgia” to catch affect of eco-anxiety induced in us by global climate change. This sense of loss of comfort in the familiar world and homesickness without exile is particularly symptomatic of our contemporary experience of the world. At stake... (More) - Nature sounds are often seen as relaxing, and understood as reconnecting our minds and bodies with something primeval. Such sounds are used for stress recovery in the fields of medicine and psychology, as well as in our personal meditation app downloaded on our phone. At the same time a continuous climate anxiety has invaded many personal experiences in relation to nature environments and phenomena. An anxiety that seems impossible to escape.
Glen Albrecht (2005) coined the notion of “solastalgia” to catch affect of eco-anxiety induced in us by global climate change. This sense of loss of comfort in the familiar world and homesickness without exile is particularly symptomatic of our contemporary experience of the world. At stake here is ontological security, the basic trust we have in the world and its rhythms that we normally rely on as predictable and secure. Moreover, the socio-ecological crisis we are going through is also and inseparably a crisis of the common sensibility in our lifeworlds. Although discreet and generally unnoticed, Robert Pyle (1978) spoke in this regard of the “extinction of experience” that increases our sense of strangeness towards the natural world.
In his article Sensibilities to Lifeworlds, french sociologist Jean-Paul Thibaud investigates the impact of the socio-ecological crisis we are going through and on the emergence of a new form of sensitivity to our living environment. He argues that we need to recognize the fundamental role played by affects and take note of our capacity to be affected. In this respect, anxiety, disorder, discomfort, concern or distress are some of the moods that colors our ways of being today. It is now impossible to conceal the precariousness and fundamental vulnerability of our condition. Natural disasters and global pandemics are there to remind us of this, in case we have forgotten. From this point of view fundamental affects infuse our relationship to the world, making us feel less and less at home on earth and accentuating the impression that the ground tends to recede beneath our feet. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/e62e0dbc-84a3-4270-8c31-49b1bc566241
- author
- Kopljar, Sandra
LU
and Koldkjær Højlund, Marie
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-12
- type
- Non-textual form
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Sound bench, Sound installation
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- e62e0dbc-84a3-4270-8c31-49b1bc566241
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-15 16:39:45
- date last changed
- 2025-09-08 02:23:46
@misc{e62e0dbc-84a3-4270-8c31-49b1bc566241,
abstract = {{Nature sounds are often seen as relaxing, and understood as reconnecting our minds and bodies with something primeval. Such sounds are used for stress recovery in the fields of medicine and psychology, as well as in our personal meditation app downloaded on our phone. At the same time a continuous climate anxiety has invaded many personal experiences in relation to nature environments and phenomena. An anxiety that seems impossible to escape. <br/><br/>Glen Albrecht (2005) coined the notion of “solastalgia” to catch affect of eco-anxiety induced in us by global climate change. This sense of loss of comfort in the familiar world and homesickness without exile is particularly symptomatic of our contemporary experience of the world. At stake here is ontological security, the basic trust we have in the world and its rhythms that we normally rely on as predictable and secure. Moreover, the socio-ecological crisis we are going through is also and inseparably a crisis of the common sensibility in our lifeworlds. Although discreet and generally unnoticed, Robert Pyle (1978) spoke in this regard of the “extinction of experience” that increases our sense of strangeness towards the natural world. <br/><br/> In his article Sensibilities to Lifeworlds, french sociologist Jean-Paul Thibaud investigates the impact of the socio-ecological crisis we are going through and on the emergence of a new form of sensitivity to our living environment. He argues that we need to recognize the fundamental role played by affects and take note of our capacity to be affected. In this respect, anxiety, disorder, discomfort, concern or distress are some of the moods that colors our ways of being today. It is now impossible to conceal the precariousness and fundamental vulnerability of our condition. Natural disasters and global pandemics are there to remind us of this, in case we have forgotten. From this point of view fundamental affects infuse our relationship to the world, making us feel less and less at home on earth and accentuating the impression that the ground tends to recede beneath our feet.}},
author = {{Kopljar, Sandra and Koldkjær Højlund, Marie}},
keywords = {{Sound bench; Sound installation}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{Wave : exploring sound solastalgia}},
year = {{2021}},
}