Aesthetics of qi/ki and Atmosphere. Steps towards East Asian Possibilities
気／氣の感性学――東アジアにおける雰囲気学の可能性
Date and Time: September 27-28, 2025 / 2025年9月27-28日
Venue: Large Meeting Room, 5th Floor, Building C, Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University
神戸大学大学院人文学研究科大会議室（C棟５階）
This workshop follows the two successful events held at Academia Sinica in Taipei last year (March 9 and September 29-October 1, 2024) and continues our exploration of qi/ki and atmosphere as steps toward developing East Asian perspectives within atmospheric studies.
While qi/ki and atmosphere may appear semantically close, they differ significantly in their historical and conceptual backgrounds: qi/ki belongs to one of the oldest and most enduring traditions of East Asian philosophy, whereas atmosphere emerged as a neologism in seventeenth-century Europe. In recent decades, the neo-phenomenological concept of atmosphere has enjoyed remarkable prominence across a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, architecture, art studies, and the social and cultural sciences, yet cross-cultural research remains underrepresented. The concept of qi/ki as one of the potential correlates of atmosphere has so far been examined only fragmentarily within modern phenomenology – or in philosophy, if not even in the humanities more generally.
This workshop seeks to address this gap by bringing together researchers from a wide array of disciplines and fields across academics and the arts. The term aesthetics in the title should not be understood in the narrow sense of a theory of beauty, but rather in its broader sense as a general study of sensuous perception. How do we sense qi/ki and/or atmosphere against the background of our different (cross-)cultural traditions? Are there significant differences not only between Europe and East Asia, but also within East Asian cultures themselves? How might we cultivate a dialogue and/or polylogue on atmosphere, and at which points might East Asian perspectives offer distinctive contributions to future atmospheric studies?
These are among the central questions that we will consider together over the course of this workshop. KOIAS warmly invite you to contribute your insights and look forward to the stimulating exchanges that will emerge from our discussions.
HISAYAMA Yuho (KOIAS)