Consuming the skies: The embodied desire for flight and atmosphere

The project looks at how consumers experience recreational flight and use their corporeal knowhow to transcend their bodies into seemingly unattainable and potentially inhospitable atmospheres (i.e. the sky). The study will explore how consumers use their ‘body techniques’ in mastering necessary technology (e.g. aircrafts) to conquer new atmospheres. We question why consumers desire recreational flight and how this (extraordinary) experience differs to more accessible, less risky commercial flying. Empirically, we lack a visceral understanding of the phenomenology flight. Academically, this research contributes to recent conversations on atmospheres which go beyond prescriptive retail environments, our affective responses to atmospheres, and theorising on embodiment and forms of bodily knowing.