Illuminated Atmospheres: Anticipating and Reproducing the Flow of Affective Experience in Blackpool

Abstract

This paper considers the atmospheric qualities of illuminated space, grounding notions of affect in investigating the longstanding autumnal event of Blackpool Illuminations. I consider the affective qualities of lighting before discussing the ‘atmosphere’ of the Illuminations. I critically explore the division between affect and emotion, the insistence on affect's precognitive qualities, and the notion that affective atmospheres produce a ‘mute attunement’ to place. In foregrounding the dense social production of atmosphere at Blackpool Illuminations, I highlight the flow of affect and emotion in place, show how lighting is ideally constituted to blur divisions between the representational and nonrepresentational, identify the anticipation of affect, and demonstrate that affective atmospheres are coproduced by visitors as part of a reiterative, festive, convivial, and playful social practice in familiar space.