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 uses custom natural language software processed the emotional changes in this email archive to create a data visualization using expressions 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 a pronoun in this email archive: "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.