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What is atmosphere

What’s an atmosphere ?

“What mediates between the objective factors of the environment and the aesthetic feelings of a human being is what we call atmosphere.”

– Makis Solomos

Definitions

Atmosphere is a term that comes up regularly when criticizing a work, recounting an experience or describing a state of mind: “they handled the atmosphere too well”, “I was in a good mood”, “there was a strange atmosphere”… So many possible formulations, for so many situations to which this idea lends itself. And for good reason, its definition is both vague and vast:

  • Larousse defines ambiance as: “All the characteristics that define the context in which someone or a group finds themselves; climate, atmosphere”. Although this definition doesn’t elaborate on this “set of characteristics”, we understand that it’s a pragmatic whole that gives identity to a situation.
  • Le Robert, for its part, adds another nuance: “Atmosphère matérielle ou morale qui environne une personne, une réunion de personnes”. Here, the nuance comes from the inclusion of the morality of others within this context. This implies an element of subjectivity in the assessment of this famous atmosphere.
  • Finally, speaking of the subjective aspect of an ambience, the definition given by Jean François Augoyard at a conference on ambience creation seems to go even further: “It necessarily includes all the sources of sensitive signals and their propagation space. It is then the individual subject who senses, feels or perceives with his or her emotions, past, imagination and representations”. Here, the emphasis is on the idea that personal feelings are just as important as more rational factors.

These various definitions paint a picture of how an ambience is defined, with three essential points that we will now detail:

  • Pragmatic components,
  • Subjective feelings,
  • A temporal context.

Let’s delve into each of these aspects in turn.

Pragmatic components

Reflecting on my own experience, talking to other enthusiasts or reading forums and articles, I’ve noticed that the components of an ambience can be very broad, although they are all characteristics that can be appreciated by our senses, and on which it is therefore possible to put words to determine their nuance. Let’s take a look.

The relationship with air

One of the closest synonyms for ambiance is atmosphere. Easily noticeable in expressions like “l’air ambiant” or “un drôle d’air”, it’s undeniable that climate impacts mood. In fact, it is one of the most palpable elements, as it is sometimes tactile (a damp mist on the skin), while most of the time visible (thick fog, smoke, dust particles…). It’s a component that played a key role in the creation of the Silent Hill license, with its iconic fog reinforcing the game’s inherent dreamlike feel.

Silent Hill 2's fog

Silent Hill’s fog, the iconic vector of its atmosphere.

The Light

A logical extension of volumetric effects, light also plays an important role (if not more so) in creating ambience. Whether it’s sunrise, clear midday or, on the contrary, cloudy weather that barely lets it in, light has an impact on colors, visibility, shadows and, in the case of sunlight, on how it feels on the skin. I analyzed its importance in my video on Dead Space lighting (french), which showed how, for example, this game liked to place certain spots of light on the ground to create disturbing shadows, making enemies more imposing than usual.

Architecture and space planning

How can we talk about atmosphere without mentioning the place where it is felt? Whether it’s a simple room, a building or even a landscape, all can convey different things, such as the visual appreciation of a decoration, but also the repercussion of sound, the distance of observation… Here, physical exploration (or through an avatar) will often be welcome in order to become fully aware of a place and its complexity, where light, for example, can be appreciated on a simple photo.

Many games use this medium to convey strong emotions, thanks in particular to the field of “Level Design”, i.e. the way in which levels are conceived. Games like NaissancE or BABBDI, for example, draw their interest from the exploration of raw, minimalist settings, whose verticality makes them brilliant platformers. Conversely, other games such as Silent Hill Downpour or The Evil Within like to confront us with game sequences in impossibly arranged locations, playing on optical effects and reinforcing the idea of a dream (not to say a nightmare).

Exploration in BABBDI

BABBDI and the exploration of its Brutalist city, no less complex for all that

The Sound

As already mentioned, what you hear also plays a major role in setting the right mood. Whether you’re listening to energetic music, distant birdsong or a television on, the mood can be completely different in the same place. Just add some funny music to a serious video and it becomes a meme. In the horror genre, sound even becomes the most important component of atmosphere, as it can convey so much. Games such as Darkwood have compensated for their graphic minimalism with terrifying, suggestive sounds that will increase your fear of the unknown tenfold.

The graphic style

Although light-dependent, the graphic style of fictional works has a major impact on the overall atmosphere. Here we find everything to do with the realism (or otherwise) of the graphics, the style (brush, pixel art…), the grain of the image (CRT screen effect, photo grain…). Sometimes, a simple glance at a screenshot can be enough to give us an idea of the mood of a work, while making us want to experience it. Just look at how The Cat Lady manages to portray depression in dark, nonchalant black-and-white images.

Dark graphic style

The Cat Lady and its darkly poetic graphic style.

The human, his behavior

As we’ve seen, the human element plays an important role in the design of an ambience. But in addition to perceiving and interpreting it, their behavior and the size of the audience present will also have an impact. Thus, the acting in a film, the animations in a video game or the behavior of an audience will all contribute to the creation of an atmosphere: a Mario running and jumping dynamically will not have the same effect as a slow, gloomy Heather (Silent Hill 3); just as being in a soccer stadium surrounded by dynamic people will not have the same impact as a silent audience in a church or cinema.

The universe and the stakes

The knowledge we have of a universe, a place or a situation with which we are confronted can modify our perception of it. This is probably the least palpable criterion, i.e. one that cannot be captured by any of our five senses. And yet… As we saw in my article on puzzles in horror games, the mere knowledge of a context can arouse an emotion that would otherwise not be possible. Imagine, for example, hearing someone sing a song in a film. It wouldn’t affect you greatly. Now, if you learn that it’s a horror film and that this particular music is sung by a terrifying monster every time it approaches, then you won’t perceive the mood of the scene in the same way.

Here’s a brief overview of the various criteria that can have a tangible, or psychological, impact on an atmosphere. These points are, of course, only the fruit of my research, and it’s quite likely that others exist. If so, don’t hesitate to leave a comment to let me know. We could, for example, have talked about smells and tastes (areas I’ve avoided in order to confine myself to what is feasible, today, in fiction).

Finally, as you may have noticed, once you’ve unpacked these pragmatic criteria, you’ll notice that they would be of little value without the interpretation of others. So it’s time to turn our attention to the all-important role played by the human element in the ambience.

A subjective feeling

“It necessarily includes all the sources of sensitive signals and their propagation space. It is then the singular subject who senses, feels or perceives with his emotions, with his past, his imagination, his representations.”

– Jean-François Augoyard

As we have seen, our identity as a self-aware human being is a determining factor in our appreciation of an ambiance. From one person to another, an atmosphere can be felt positively or negatively, intensely or insignificantly, and may or may not last over time. According to my research, two key factors play a role in capturing it.

Our past, our habits

In some ways, our past comes close to the knowledge we were talking about earlier. However, where it differs from raw knowledge (the music as the monster approaches) is in the personal, intimate and subjective side of our experience. Thus, our upbringing, culture, lifestyle etc. will have a big impact.

Let’s take the example of Gothic aesthetics, which initially aimed to convey a sense of the divine, thanks to its large scale, new design methods and numerous symbolic ornaments. Over the centuries, as a result of British novels and popular culture, both of which feature a number of horror stories set in such places, these buildings have come to be associated with the horrific style.

Dracula's Castle

Dracula’s castle, a pioneering combination of Gothic and horror.

In addition to these unconscious stereotypes created by our past, the recurrence of an atmosphere in our exploration can tend to diminish its effects. The more we come into contact with a place, the less we feel its atmosphere. Have you ever been told that your home has a particular smell, yet you don’t perceive it? A noise you can’t hear? Paradoxically, a few adjustments are usually all it takes to regain a sense of atmosphere. Rearrange a few pieces of furniture in a room, and you’ll have the feeling of rediscovering your interior.

Finally, although I haven’t found any research on the subject, I suspect that our own impact on a mood can tend to amplify its perceived effects (although these effects diminish over time, as we’ve just seen). Whether it’s a party we’ve organized, a house we’ve built in a game or a drawing we’ve made, knowing in depth what makes up our creation, while recalling our state of mind when we conceived it, can make us feel the mood more intensely. I only have to think back to my happy days spent on Valheim building myself a warm house, or to my great sadness following the catastrophic impact one of my bad decisions had on a village in The Witcher 2, to believe in this theory.

Peaceful in Valheim

Valheim, where you can build your dream life in autarky

Emotion, our imagination

Since nothing is more subjective than a human being, the very moment we experience a situation can be decisive in how we perceive it. Since our emotions at a given moment also depend, of course, on our past and everything that makes us who we are, emotions are not always rational or even conscious.

In fact, a piece of music listened to from one day to the next (or even at different times of the same day) could be felt differently, making us oscillate between joy, nostalgia and melancholy, depending on how we feel.

In the same way, our state of mind (though partly linked to emotion) predisposes us, authorizes us or restricts us, to feel an atmosphere. If we find ourselves at a party we don’t want to be at, we’ll probably find it harder to capture the excitement around us. The human brain has a great capacity for self-conviction, so this comes as no great surprise.

Finally, our imaginations also play their part. Projecting ourselves, interpreting, daydreaming or, on the contrary, fearing a situation, are all ways of orienting our perception of an atmosphere in one direction or another.

As we’ve just seen, our past and our identity will allow us to receive and feel an atmosphere differently from one person to another, and even from one moment to the next. So, atmosphere cannot be fully defined solely on the basis of pragmatic and subjective elements, unless a third point is taken into consideration: temporality.

An (in)temporal context

Some things change, others don’t. Ambiences grow, evolve, endure, fade and then return in our dreams. It’s hard to say whether any mood can be considered timeless or not. On the one hand, they can only be interpreted at a given moment, and on the other, their memory and traces can make them endure long afterwards. Let’s explore these contradictions.

The atmosphere diminishes with time

As we saw above, we naturally perceive a mood less intensely with habit and the passage of time. However, a few adjustments can give it a second wind. If you missed the section on this subject, go back to “A subjective feeling / Our past, our habits”.

The atmosphere is anchored in a moment T

Getting used to a mood isn’t the only thing holding you back. In fact, a mood doesn’t last forever; you have to take it in the moment. As the many factors we’ve mentioned above are highly volatile, a simple change in one of them can be enough to drastically alter a mood. A warm, peaceful summer’s day won’t last much longer than when the sun goes down. The mood has to be taken when it’s there. Its ephemeral nature allows us to appreciate its substance even more, in the knowledge that it is destined to disappear.

A moment of suspension

Despite all the ephemerality we’ve just mentioned, ambience likes to give itself a timeless air, as if frozen in time. As a human being, to feel ambience is also, and above all, to take time. Time to sit back, observe, listen, and become aware of the existence of this famous atmosphere. An atmosphere only seems real if you’re aware of it, at the time or afterwards, when you think about it. Remembering it then becomes the most powerful way of transcribing what shaped it, as we were too busy to observe it in situ. So, unlike her actual presence, our memory, along with various media such as photos and videos, will serve as evidence and anchors for the emotions she once made us feel.

Cosy places

Wallpapers: powerful ways to capture an atmosphere

Aparté: atmosphere VS immersion

As we’ve seen, atmosphere is one of the points most often raised when critiquing or analyzing a video game. Similarly, the term “immersion” is often used to describe more or less similar aspects. However, although immersion is still a word whose definition is not universally accepted, there is a fairly clear distinction between the two notions:

  • Immersion depends on a sense of involvement in a fictional world. In cinema, for example, this is reflected in its credibility; in video games, it’s more a question of the player’s impression of having a certain impact on it.
  • Atmosphere, on the other hand, is self-sufficient, provided someone can appreciate it. There’s no need to act in any way to perceive it. On the contrary, observation and slowness are the best ways to achieve it.

So, to sum up, immersion is an atmosphere to which we’ve added a sense of involvement.

Conclusion: is the atmosphere controllable?

In this article, we’ve taken a look at what makes up the complex term ambience, breaking down most of its palpable components, but also explaining how human appreciation plays a key role. Similarly, we have seen how the ephemeral nature of ambience tends to reinforce its flavor.

The beauty of ambience sometimes lies in its unpredictability. Being surprised to discover a pretty alleyway on a streetlamp evening, arriving at a magnificent viewpoint after a 2-hour hike, or finding yourself at an impromptu party… these are all moments when surprise multiplies the effects of ambiance tenfold. But even so, is it possible to deliberately set the mood?

In architecture, or more generally in a non-fictional setting, rather than setting the mood, we talk about influencing it. Although we can’t fully invent it (subjectivity in its appreciation and its ephemeral nature probably being the reasons for this), putting things in place remains relevant in order to encourage its creation…

In fiction, however, it’s a different story. Unlike reality (and apart from the viewer’s state of mind), everything can be shaped. As fictional worlds are not impacted by any superior force, such as time or even the humans who inhabit them, their composers can have a field day setting any mood they like. This is, of course, a highly complex task, since atmosphere is all about subtlety and attention to detail. In another article, we’ll take a look at how video game developers go about setting the mood in this beloved medium.

Acknowledgements :

The Point’n Think team (and especially Hauntya, Julien Djoubri, David Torres, Camera Obscura and Nicolas Venturini), Alexandre Drouin (2L Studio).

Sources :

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