Finding scenography in everyday urban atmospheres

This article explores how concepts from the field of scenography can be applied to the recognition of affective atmospheres in familiar places. Responding to calls to develop research methodologies that attend to the first-hand experience of sensory and bodily engagement with the materiality of urban atmospheres, I explore how “found” scenographies can be a technique for registering and examining the varieties of urban atmosphere. Utilising phenomenography, I draw on scenographic thinking to develop a focus and a framework for the perception and analysis of everyday urban atmospheres. The article promotes imaginative and performative modes of bodily engagement with urban environments in order to appreciate the dynamic entanglements of bodies, spaces and materials that constitute urban environments and the potential range of affects for diverse bodies.