Energy saving technologies and the battle of atmosphere

International audienceThis paper explores how two notions of atmosphere - a climatic and an experiential - are informing everyday orchestrations of domestic spaces in Denmark. While notions of sustainability, environmental ethics and ecology dominate the public discourse, everyday lighting practices often seem to be based on quite different premises that in effect counter the contemporary discourse on environmental ethics. Based on anthropological fieldwork, the paper explores how orchestrations of atmospheres through lighting technologies are central part of social life and may shape experiences of both solitude and solidarity. Navigating between an environmental ethics of climate awareness and subjective experiences of space highlights how notions of morality and resistance are played out through atmospheric orchestrations and evaluations relating to conceptualizations of dirt and the sterile