just a feeling
(work in progress)
an ongoing exploration into the communication of emotions through different visual mediums.
Project Brief
The goal of this project is to choose a topic, explore it in depth, and create a meaningful design artifact.
TOOLs
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe After Effects
Adobe InDesign
Abstract
This research explores the complexities of human emotion, the science behind empathy, and how emotional context is deduced from visual cues. Participants were asked to explain some of their most complicated emotions, with questions that prompted them to explore their feelings in new ways. This information was then used to translate their feelings into photographs intended to evoke similar emotions in others. Additional experiments were then performed to gain a deeper understanding of the visual cues that evoke emotion. Creating more simplistic images, makes it easier to determine the most effective visual elements. Qualitative data collected through observation, indicates that the experiments were largely successful in achieving there objectives. Indicating that it is possible to convey extremely complex emotion through relatively simple imagery, and a deeper understanding of how this happens, could be achieved through a larger sample size and collection of more quantitative data on the effects of the final artifacts.
Research book
(an excerpt)
exploration 01
Photographing feelings
Photographing Feelings
For this experiment I interviewed a number of people about complex and difficult to describe emotions. I asked them a series of question I designed specifically to gather information on their visualization of this feeling. I then did my best to translate their emotion into a still image based on their description.
exploration 02
The River
The river
This experiment is slightly more abstract than the previous one but the creative process involved in executing it was quite educational.
My original goal was to recreate the emotions from exploration 01, but using a consistent object or theme. I decided to attempt this in the ravine near my house. It turned out to be more difficult than I expected but I quickly discovered a new goal. As I photographed the river I was so surprised by how many different images I was able to capture, and they all felt so different, almost like an ink blot test. So I decided to explore the variety of things that could be said with only this one river, and how controlling only the camera lens and not the object would effect my process and results.
river Videos
exploration 03
Video
video
Through my river experiment I realized that video and sound are both good mediums for convey emotion. However, because I have no mixed sounds, filmed video, or used proper video editing software before,
I decided to practice.
So far I’ve only complete one video but I intend to experiment more.
This video is focused more on practicing my editing than a very specific emotion so it’s a bit vague, but it’s inspired by a sort of sad dissociative state. I picked the song, and did the face paint inspired by the song, and the rest just followed. If I were to do something like this again I will hopefully be able to do so with more intention now that I am familiar with the process. Additionally, I think the content could be greatly improved
if I was able to film someone else instead of attempting to film myself.