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Privatized Atmospheres, Personal Bubbles

Abstract From his birth in 1971 to his death in 1984, a child born without a functioning immune system lived in a sealed isolator, his predicament immortalized in the term “bubble boy.” This paper follows the inhabitable sterile bubble from medical curiosity, through filmic fantasy, to its current status as a commercially available, mass-produced therapeutic retreat from urban air pollution. It is proposed that the conditions – technological, environmental and social – are now in place for a further iteration – the widespread uptake of lighter-weight, personal, wearable air bubbles that secure against airborne toxins. Arguing the entanglement of the self, immunity, architecture and air, this paper examines the conditions under which the adoption of privatized air is likely and with what effect on public space and the social body.