How might we collect the emotional data of a city? What if the collected data can affect the mood of the city?
And You
Emotional infrastructure that collects people’s feelings
Role
Lead Designer, Conceptual strategist
Storyteller, Interaction designer
Team
Stephanie Lukito, Jack Wilkinson, Cameron Hanson, Gui Curi and Andrea Morales Coto
External Partners
The University of Glasgow, Chiba University.
Recognitions
Presented at Toshiba in Tokyo, Japan.
Cities nowadays are getting increasingly smart. From our street lights, to our bicycles and even our air. But in this quantitative approach, it's easy to think of our cities in a mechanistic way rather than a place for emotional support or infrastructure. We grow increasingly disconnected from the places we visit, the infrastructure that transports us and the general feel of a place. How might we connect in different ways? In the midst of our increasingly fast lives, could we leverage the internet of things to use it for people instead of objects? Could Artificial Intelligence help us become more aware of our surroundings, and in return could we help shape AI's understanding of us?
And You is an emotional infrastructure that collects people’s feelings in the city. Inspired by city infrastructure like water fountains, And You crowdsources our thoughts and ultimately our emotions to visualize the average mood of the city through color. And You becomes a self-reflection tool for dwellers, a pause in time and a connection to others.
Our project AndYou is a freestanding post that’s installed in public places that give you pause, such as a park or street corner. When a passerby stops and rests their hands on either side of the post, it does three things.
First, the post changes color to the mood of the participant.
Second, the post plays an anonymous message from someone else.
Finally, the participant is asked to share her own message of how she’s feeling. These messages and hand-sensors are data points that serve as self-reflection tools for its users, but also serve as an aggregate of the collective mood of a city.
