Seite - 28 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 3/2017

28 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 3 2o17 Birgit Abels | Musical Atmospheres and Sea-Nomadic Movement Among the Sama Dilaut in gong music on the open sea, envision themselves when they are sensually exploring the space they consider theirs: like a strand between the ocean of sound and the land of fixed coordinates. During the historical wedding parade – “historical” because it is no longer a common cul- tural practice among the Sama Dilaut – the flotillas of both the groom and bride slowly move toward each other. On several boats among both parties, gong ensembles would play indepen- dently, their music coalescing into a thick, multi-part texture. While the couple ties the knot, all involved in the wedding are pulled into the sonic space emerging from the layers of music. By entering and moving through that same sonic space for the duration of the wedding, the two families become one, affirming the in-law bond between both families. The sounds of gongs, the sonic environment they create, and the Sama Dilaut’s cultural practice of sounding out that environment by moving brings about the space where Sama Dilaut connect with and reaffirm social relationships, as well as perform rituals – the space where they dwell as Sama Dilaut. This is a space not arbitrarily visited, but purposefully created. New phenomenologist Hermann Schmitz distinguishes between spaces of geometric na- ture, in which there are coordinates and distances between objects, and “surfaceless spaces,” in which there are none of those entities. Examples of the latter, for him, are the spaces of weather and silence. The Sama Dilaut space emerging during a wedding parade belongs in this category of spaces. Humans relate to surfaceless space in a decidedly immediate and felt-bodily way; however, “as soon as the surface comes into play, the felt body’s estrangement from space begins”6 (Schmitz 1998, 74). Schmitz counts music among the surfaceless phenomena, and, as such, partaking in music facilitates the temporary convergence (as opposed to estrangement) of space and time with the felt body. Therefore, it also allows for the temporary convergence of the felt body with its own spatiality, its own temporality.7 This convergence comes about through the atmospheric suggestion of movement. People can encorporate such suggestions, according to Schmitz. Whenever several people encorporate music in a similar manner, the resultant “solidary encorporation” enables them to relate with each other via the resultant patterns of movement.8 Solidary encorporation creates shared situations: A we-Leib (Wir-Leib) comes into being, and through movement, it unites all the I-Leibe (Ich-Leib) – the people who have encor- porated the same music. A situational sense of belonging starts to manifest as an atmosphere. This atmosphere is procedural and felt-bodily, and, in the case of the wedding parade, it fills physical space with an atmosphere of Sama Dilautness. 6 “[M]it der Fläche beginnt die Entfremdung des Raums vom Leib“ in the original German. 7 For a more in-depth exploration of Hermann Schmitz’s theorizing of music and atmosphere and its implications, see Abels 2017. 8 Recent ethnomusicological work on entrainment addresses a related but different musical effect. While entrainment describes how two rhythmic processes “interact with each other in such a way that they adjust towards and eventually ‘lock in’ to a common phase and/or periodicity” (Clayton et al. 2004, 2), solidary encorporation occurs when a synchronization of felt-bodily attunement to specific suggestions of movement in a given situation has been reached among the individuals present. Entrainment therefore refers to a primarily cognitive process; encorporation describes a kind of corporeal communication that manifests as felt-bodily experience. See Schmitz et al. 2011; Abels 2017.