Atmospheric gooves: underwater chess and more

(Title should say "grooves".)

This is my first thread in the "Off Topic" subforum. This is serious thread with heavy implications that reach into extremely disparate fields like psychology, advertising, nonpartisan politics, music, art, filmmaking, and yes, even chess. It's a topic that is important to me, but one I have never seen or heard discussed *anywhere*. Fortunately it's an inherently an upbeat topic that everyone can relate to. So let's get started...

As I mentioned in my comment in one thread earlier today (post #38 at https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/why-did-it-take-so-long-to-invent-algebraic-notation), there exist numerous topics or concepts that do not even have names. Without a name, a topic can barely even be discussed, much less developed into an art or science, therefore giving names to concepts can be important. One of the less controversial such concepts that in my opinion conspicuously lacks a name is what I will call an "atmospheric groove." (I could use some people knowledgeable about psychology to lend their expertise here, to tell me if psychology already has a name for the concept I am about to describe.)

The colloquial term "groove" is used mostly in music, especially in jazz, to describe a certain feeling that one gets from listening to a musical composition, especially to the rhythm section of a jazz composition. This meaning of "groove" is even defined and described on Wikipedia...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_(music)

...which describes "groove" as...

"an unspecifiable but ordered sense of something that is sustained in a distinctive, regular and attractive way, working to draw the listener in."

Since I happen to like jazz, I know exactly what this description is talking about, and I can provide examples if desired, but mostly what I want to know is if there is a name for a similar concept that is *not* a musical groove. In particular, I'm interested in grooves that combine several aspects of a setting into a composite emotion that is harmonious in a pleasant and particularly appealing, memorable way.

Let me start with a chess example. I've noticed that chess has often been used in films in an underwater habitat setting. For example, in the '60s National Geographic magazine carried a photo of the Conshelf II underwater habitat where a couple guys were sitting next to an underwater porthole were playing a game of chess...

https://www.messynessychic.com/2013/05/27/remains-of-an-underwater-habitat-left-by-1960s-sea-dwellers/conshelf-ii-chess/
https://static.messynessychic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Conshelf-II-Chess.jpg

Then in 1966 a movie was released called "Around the World Under the Sea", where a chess match was going on in the background between two of a submersible's crewmembers...

http://www.aveleyman.com/FilmCredit.aspx?FilmID=883
http://www.aveleyman.com/Gallery/ActorsW/18800-883.jpg

Then when EPCOT opened their Horizons ride in Walt Disney World, one of the scenes on the ride was of a view through a porthole into the interior of an underwater habitat where two people were playing chess, very much like the National Geographic photo. (Sorry, I can't find a picture of this scene online, though the scene below was nearby.)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/539165386610522549/
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/5a/6f/20/5a6f205f23d304cf84b370827bae4e3c.jpg

I always loved these three portrayals of chess in such underwater settings. Each one carried the same cozy feeling with it, having to do with intellectual intensity in a high-tech environment while surrounded by nature as a contrast. I always thought it would be great to play chess in such a setting. That's a great example of what I mean by an "atmospheric groove": it's a positive feeling that evidently results from several influences at once, such as the physical setting, focus of attention, maybe specific music, maybe specific scents, maybe specific tastes, maybe specific languages, and so on. Together those influences create an atmosphere ("patina" might be a more accurate word) based on a certain positive emotion arising from that combination. What was it about chess in an underwater habit that such films, photos, and rides kept portraying that particular combination?

Yet that underwater habit chess atmosphere is just one of a huge number of "atmospheric grooves" I've noted. For example, ever notice how Walt Disney was an expert of creating such moods through atmospheres? Just thinking of the different lands in Disneyland or Walt Disney World, which relate to medieval castles, jungles, futuristic cities, or the Old West, makes one realize that each one of those lands had its own atmospheric groove. The same holds true for numerous Disney films: "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," "Sleeping Beauty," and "Third Man on the Mountain" (which inspired the creation of Matterhorn mountain in Disneyland) come to my mind. Film makers in general must be very aware of this phenomenon when they create film sets that create a certain mood, but I've never heard about specifics of this.

I'll pause here for feedback. Anybody else have any atmospheric grooves they'd like to share? I'll post more examples later. There is tremendous overlap between atmospheric grooves, I've noticed, and they can be very specific, like to a certain day in a certain setting from one's life. Also I noticed that music is often an integral part of them, I believe partly because it helps to gel the feeling and to make it more memorable (via musical structure). Also, just a single atmospheric groove can keep a person inspired for years, such as the embodiment of a lifestyle goal to achieve while one is making one's way through college, so obviously they must be important to us.

Its interesting concept. I'm curious, how would you define atmospheric groove in one sentence? And how does it differ from atmosphere, such as the atmosphere in a restaurant?

Kasparov? Since we're already off-topic in the off-topic forum, if I had to play on a floating chessboard I think I'd rather play against somebody like this... 

Thanks for taking this topic seriously. Restaurants are another great example, where each such restaurant setting induces a certain specific atmosphere-with-emotion. Let me give a shot at a definition:

atmospheric groove (n.): Any one of many specific possible combinations of specific emotional state with specific psychological state that tends to be induced by a specific combination of environmental elements. Such environmental elements are almost always harmonious, and often include setting, music, type of social company, scents, tastes, color combinations, other sensations, topics of conversation, weather, clothing, Zeitgeist, buzzwords, or the language spoken. Most commonly the combined emotional and psychological effect is pleasant, reproducible, and can be mildly obsessive.

I really like this idea. It is intriguing. However I may see a problem with your definition.

Essentially your definition states that atmospheric groove is the emotional state caused by environmental elements.

Do you think it would make more sense to define it as the environmental elements that cause the emotional state?

This topic could potentially lead to a rabbit-hole of more useful ways to describe many different situations with added potential for nuance and meaning. War scenes, love stories, drug-induced states of mind, skilled observation vs amateur observation, emotional states, etc.

It's the atmospheric groove that changes in all of those. I really dig that. I suppose that the idea includes both individual perception combined with external elements. It's like a merger of the external and internal worlds. An overall feeling that the present experience gives.

Interesting stuff.

I have sometimes found my self in a cool groove when working at the lathe. Occasionally whilst doing a repetitive task like making several of the same batch order I find myself enjoying the creative aspect of making each movement as precise as possible. It pleases me in a somewhat undefinable way and makes me realise that I still love what I do.

Would this be similar? I do by the way listen to popular music whilst I work,

This is a tricky topic to explore, and part of the reason is that I'm attempting to describe emotions. In psychology, researchers used to avoid studying emotions at all because emotions are very subjective and cannot be directly communicated because of their largely chemical nature. (That seems to have changed in the last couple decades, however.) Instead, psychological researchers used to focus on ensuing behavior without trying the model the "black box" of the brain. Another problem is describing what I'm calling "mental state," which again lacks a good definition (as far as I know): by "mental state" I don't mean something obvious like whether someone is having an epileptic seizure or sleeping, but rather a temporary state where a number of perceptions and/or thoughts are held in awareness at the same time. Another problem is that "atmospheric grooves" (AGs, I'll call them, for short) aren't exactly emotions, since bodies have a limited set of emotions (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/new-research-says-there-are-only-four-emotions/283560/, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201004/what-are-emotions) whereas the number of combinations of mental states is unlimited.

As for your suggestion that AGs be described using a list of the environmental factors that cause them, that simply isn't reliable because people often react very differently to the same stimuli. For example, one A.I. book I read mentioned that one person riding in a Porsche at high speed around winding roads might be loving the experience, whereas another person in the same car might be terrified and hating the experience.

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean! One AG I personally like is to sit near a sunny window, reading a book or working on a computer. This is a type of pleasure that many other people enjoy, too, I've noticed, evidenced by a lot of photos and paintings that attempt to capture this feeling. It's funny that cats seem to enjoy this same AG, since cats also love to sit in sunny windows and look out. Most AGs have a similar "cozy" feel to them, such as being inside a cramped submersible or sitting in a sports car.

As I mentioned, there is high overlap between these AGs. I've analyzed a number of AGs, especially my own, just as I love to analyze everything else (including chess openings and chess games). As in the sunny window AG described above, sunshine is a common component of various AGs. That sunshine has positive connotations should be obvious from all the logos, children's paintings, band names, and songs about sunshine...

 

The components of AGs can be manipulated like ingredients of a recipe. For example, if one considers only songs about sunshine, you get songs like: (forgive me for mostly using oldies here)

()
The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon - Studio Version (lyrics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeOa_OcB3DE
()
The Sunrays - I LIve For The Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiNDfbgB4Fs

If you give names to these conceptual components, like "SUNSHINE" for the above AG, then you can start to combine them. A simple way to do this is by boolean ANDs. For example, if you wanted to describe the pleasant AG that you feel when riding a car in the sunshine, then you'd create another concept name like "CAR", and combine these two concepts as: SUNSHINE AND CAR. Not surprisingly, musicians have already beaten you to this, and have written songs with that particular combination in mind, such as:

()
Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me - 5 Keith Urban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwA4nobMzxc
()
Boston - Don't Look Back
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK51YCjZ-ls

There is no limit to how specific you can get. The more specific the concept or feeling you want to describe, the more components you would connect with an "AND". Using this mechanism, I believe a person can piece together all the components of any AG they want to describe, even down to the specificity of the good feeling you got on day v while doing activity w with person x in environment y while riding in vehicle z.

Now it's easy to see why there is so much overlap between AGs.
For example, if you wanted to describe an AG that combined the concepts of SUNSHINE AND HORSES, you might end up with songs like this:

()
The Tinker & The Crab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1yaBFC-gLo
()
The Allman Brothers Band - Blue Sky (Eat A Peach, February 12,1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwyXQn9g40I

That's not too different from the SUNSHINE AND CAR AG. If you compare the sets of components for those AGs, you'd have {SUNSHINE, CAR} and {SUNSHINE, HORSES}, and the common element, found by the intersection operator used on those sets, would be SUNSHINE. (And you thought set theory had nothing to do with emotions or everyday life!) Therefore you have arbitrary control over how closely sets match by adding, deleting, or manipulating their components.

This is great news for musicians and artists, because it gives them a means of controlling their artistic creations--a way of mastering their art. Obviously this is something that is worth money too, like an advertising company that hires an artist to put across a certain feeling, or a shopping mall that hires an architect to put shoppers in a buying mood, or a politician who hires a psychologist to give a candidate a certain aura to project to the public. Whether somebody has secretly mastered such secrets of emotional manipulation, I don't know, but I believe this is a more important topic than it might seem at first glance.

This is making me feel like I should pay closer attention to the AG's that I put myself into. Being in a basement with no windows so much of the time can't be healthy...

I think this topic is intuitively understood by most people but it's interesting putting an academic lens on it.