Relational Clocks (2018/19)
Custom natural language processing software and data visualization, flat screen monitors; digital video
Since 2014, I have received unwanted emails from an internet stalker, sometimes over 40 emails a day. This work combines emotional processing with data processing. It uses custom natural language software to process the emotional changes in this email archive. The software translates the changing emotional tenor of certain words as they are used in my stalker's emails into a data visualization using facial expressions. These facial expressions are taken from the Facial Action Coding system (FACS), a taxonomy of facial movements used to systematically categorize the physical expression of emotion. The visualization on each monitor corresponds to the usage of the pronouns “I,” “you,” and “we.”
There are two versions of the work: I, You, We (2018), which is a "live" clock that will run as long as the emails continue to be received; and I/hour, You/hour, and We/hour (2019), which illustrates the average frequency of a pronoun's use and affect across the email archive, and can be looped to extend into perpetuity.


