Anger Visualizer
From my previous research dedicated to the final project, I found my interest in exploring how interactive projects could contribute to the visualization of human emotions and even the emotions of animals. Crawford in his article The Art of Interactive Design emphasizes the importance of communication in an interactive process, and I believe that the interactivity could serve as a platform for extending communication, strengthen and more accurately translate the messages from one actor to another actor. In my previous documentation, I have looked at two successful interactive projects in the genre of emotions visualization: INUPATHY, which visualizes puppies’ emotions into different colors based on an algorithm studying the heartbeat; and Atlas of Emotions, which is an interactive learning tool guiding users in the exploration of their emotions.
To build on my previous research, also acknowledging my limitation in skills in making something as complex as INUPATHY or Altas of Emotions, I decided to narrow my research trajectory down and focus on the visualization of anger and visualizes in a funny manner with the tools of processing and Arduino.
Since I focus on anger, I have been looking for a form of visualization could be easily understood but reflect my understanding of the visualization of anger. One example I have found is linking “smoke” to “anger.” It is often used in cartoons to offer a more direct presentation of the character’s emotions. Once a character turns mad, smokes coming out the head/ears presents their emotion but also implies the “heat” in their head while turning mad. In my final project, I decided to go in this trajectory, and design an interactive machine to visualize anger linking it to both smoke as well as the “temperature of the heat.”
To expand my project, I would like to use the Arduino vibrant sensor to track the change in the heartbeat of the user to translate the change from “calm” to “anger.” Further, with the data collected I would like to link it to a smoke-maker, could be either humidifier or a vaporizer, to function with the change based on the data collected from the sensor. Also, I would like to have the data to be translated into a thermometer of anger with the tool of processing.
Anger to me may not be necessarily a bad status, but rather a release of extreme emotions. This is why I would like a build a mechanism of translating anger into a funny and more visible manner, and in addition, to encourage people to more willing to express anger rather than preserving this negative emotion to himself.