We are pleased to invite you to the international symposium « Traces and Atmospheres of Disasters », which will take place on May 20-21, 2026, on the Vauban Campus of Nîmes University. This event, organized by Chrome Lab., Projekt, and Koias (Kobe University) will bring together semioticians, phenomenologists and anthropologists from Japan, Italy, France and Canada.

Through a dialogue between the semiotics of traces, the new phenomenology of atmospheres, and the anthropology of memory, the symposium will address a shared question : what is it like to feel a disaster, and how the memory of such events can be conveyed? Disasters such as Minamata disease, the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, and the 3.11 disasters will be discuss. 

Registration is required to attend the conference, either on-site or online. 

Further information and link to register are available here: 

Traces and atmospheres of disasters – Nîmes Université

Please also find the program on this link.

An exhibition « Living Atmospheres » by contemporary artist Season Lao will be held in parallel at the Chapel of the Hoche Campus, with a vernissage on May 19th, 5pm. More details here: 

Exhibition: Living Atmospheres – Nîmes Université

We hope that many of you will be able to join us for this moment of exchange and reflection

Kind regards,

The scientific organizers of the symposium

Mathieu Gaulène (UPR CHROME, Nîmes University)
Michela Deni (UPR Projekt, Nîmes University)
Yuho Hisayama (Kobe University)