Document:Q11896

Introduction

Art is an extension of the mind. It embodies people’s feelings or intentions.
Human emotions arise from complex external and internal contexts.
How does the artist contain human emotions in an electronic canvas?
Many computer generated drawings have abstract forms. My project ,”Heartbeat Drawing” connects human and machine mind and body. The possession of innate emotion in non-human intellects is primarily a philosophical topic. Many scientists have studied how computers can be more emotionally intelligent, especially responding Üto a person’s feelings. In my project, physical -digital interfaces provide the connective tissue between our bodies and the codes represented in our machines. ÜI take these interfaces in an emotional way. Emotional understanding refers to the ability of a device to detect emotional information. Interactive computer systems have been built that can begin to detect and label aspects of human emotional expression. I use a Heart beat sensor to detect human emotions. Not only does the heart contain feelings and emotion metaphorically, it actually processes emotional information and communicates it to the brain. Abstract expressionism is a parallel process of the heart/brain interface. ÜMy electronic canvas is affected by the inner response of the body, not by exterior response. The goal of my project is to enrich and facilitate emotional interactivity between human and the machine, giving emotional meaning to my electronic painting.

Background research

Expressionism artwork often reflects a desire to communicate the individual's inner state, a highly emotional state of mind.
To the abstract expressionist, Painting had to be direct, immediate, and spontaneous. Their work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to be accident and chance, but which is actually highly planned.

How does the heart reflect the mind?
Emotion is fundamental to human experience, influencing cognition, perception, and everyday tasks such as learning, communication, and even rational decision-making. Inner states such as emotion and feeling are connected to the body. Affect has been isunderstood and is difficult to measure. The Heart beat is a part of bodily expression of emotion. Detecting emotional information usually involves passive sensors which capture data about the user's physical state or behavior. The data gathered is often analogous to the cues humans use to perceive emotions in others. Recognizing emotional information requires the extraction of meaningful patterns from the gathered data. This is done by parsing the data through various processes . I use a heartbeat sensor to detect a emotion.

Recent biomedical research has revealed that the heart is not just a simple pump, but a highly complex, self-organized information processing center with its own functional "brain." With each beat, the heart continuously communicates with the brain and body via the nervous system, hormonal system, bioelectromagnetic interactions, and other pathways. At the HeartMath Research Center, they are demonstrating that the messages the heart sends the brain not only affect physiological regulation, but can also influence perception, emotions, behaviors, performance, and health. The heart and brain maintain a continuous two-way dialogue, with each influencing the other's functioning. Of the bodily organs, the heart plays a particularly important role in our emotional experience. The experience of an emotion results from the brain, heart and body acting in concert.
It is now known that the signals the heart sends the brain can influence perception, emotional processing, and higher cognitive functions. Some research is exploring the influence of the heart's input on brain activity, emotional perception and experience, and cognitive performance. They have shown that emotion-related changes in the heart's rhythmic activity are correlated with distinct changes in these variables. We now know that the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. And the brain responds to the heart in many important ways. The heart, as an energetic system, examines the heart's field as a carrier of emotional information and a mediator of bioelectromagnetic communication, both within and outside the body. This research has shown that our heart's field changes distinctly as we experience different emotions. This change is registered by the brains of people around us.
As we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity, our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain, which it recognizes as negative or stressful feelings. These signals create the actual feelings we experience in the heart area and the body. HeartMath’s research shows that when we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion, the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. Harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance.
The fact is, emotions do affect the heart. This picture allows you to see how emotions affect your heart rhythms
Interaction

The real time drawings are created based on the information coming from each individual participant
through the heart beat information. Variation of the rate, pulse, rhythm and speed of THE heart beat
determine the color, shape and pattern of the drawing. For example, as we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity, our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain, which it recognizes as negative or stressful feelings. When we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion, the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. Harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance.
This everchanging shape is created by the viewer's heartbeat.
The drawings and paintings in this installation are controlled by the heart beat monitor connected to the Ezio interface and a computer. The software is written in processing. The viewer's heart beat Üdeterminds the color pallette and character of drawing. The rate, pulse rhythm and speed of heart beat corresponds to the color, shape, pattern and speed. The fact is, emotions do affect the heart, and this heart beat does affect the drawings.

<COLOR CHART ;Color Preferences Reveal Your Personality >
Ever wonder why there are so many colors of new cars to chose from?
What about the color of your shirt or blouse? What color is your bedroom?
Your preferences for certain colors is a very personal one and psychologists -
as well as marketing researchers - have studied the question of why certain colors appeal to certain people
for years. These answers may lie in our attitudes towards life, as well as our emotional states.
Color is an inseparable part of our everyday lives and its presence is evident in everything that we perceive.
It is widely recognized that colors have also a strong impact on our emotions and feelings (Hemphill, 1996; Lang, 1993; Mahnke, 1996).
The most familiar test is perhaps the test devised in the 1940s by the swiss psychologist
Max Luscher, which according to his organization is now used widely in ethnographical research, medical diagnosis
and therapy, gerontology and personnel selection. The Full test uses seventy-three
colour -patches, but a short and handy version includes only eight samples;
dark blue, blue green, orange red, bright yellow. viloet, brown, black and grey. the subject is
asked to arrange the coloured cards in a descending order of
preference, and an analysis of this order over a number of test-runs alloweds the psychologists
to interpre the subject's character. this interpretation is predicted on the meanings attributed
to the colours. thus blue, which Luscher, LIKE MOST modern phychologists has identified as the
most widely preferred colour among europeans, is held to be concentric, passive, sensitive,
perceptive, unifying, and so on, and thus to express tranquility, tenderness, and love and affection'
Orange -red, however, is eccentric, active, offensive, aggressive, autonomous and competitive
and hence expressive of desire, domination and sexuality. the section of the public to which
the Luscher Test is chiefly directed may be inferred from the interpretation it gives
to an ordering which puts blue at the beginning and red towards the end of the sequence;

color symbolism
The basic colours have fundamental psychological properties that are universal,
regardless of which particular shade, tone or tint of it you are using.
Each of them has potentially positive or negative psychological effects and which of these effects
is created depends on the relationships within colour combinations.
For instance, the color red has been associated with excitement, orange has been perceived as distressing
and upsetting, purple as dignified and stately, yellow as cheerful, and blue has been associated with comfort
and security (Ballast, 2002; Wexner, 1982). Moreover, some colors may be associated with several different
emotions and some emotions are associated with more than one color (Linton, 1999, Saito, 1996). Red,
symbolically known as a dominant and dynamic color, has an exciting and stimulating hue effect.
It has both positive and negative impressions such as active, strong, passionate, warm, but on the other hand
aggressive, bloody, raging and intense. Green has been found to have a retiring and relaxing effect.
It too has both positive and negative impressions such as refreshment, quietness, naturalness, and conversely
tiredness and guilt (Davey, 1998, Mahnke, 1996, Saito, 1996).
Conclusion
My project asks the question how can we show changes of human emotions on an electronic canvas as abstract expressionist
did in their paintings . This is based on abstract expressionist goal.
My work is continuously changed by people's heartbeat. This project allows the transfer of pure emotion directly onto the canvas. The heartbeat creates dynamic compositions, everchanging the shape and undulating the rhythm. This interface has the ability to
sense, recognize, and respond to the human communication of emotion.
My artworks connect mind and body. I believe that electronic painting can convey emotional content and create a subjective experience
for the viewer.

reference

Institute of heartmath , research,
http://www.heartmath.org/research/research-publications.html