Hand drawings and collage work Digital visualization on tablet Framed artwork display

intro_A_Human-AI_Emotional_Dialogue

Embodied Without a Body

A Human-AI Emotional Dialogue

This project, developed in response to Arunav's suggestion to read Dylan Evans' Emotion: A Very Short Introduction, explores how emotional processes might be understood and mapped across both human and artificial systems.

In previous investigations I attempted to draw what an AI described as emotions. I tried to translate the prompts it gave me into collages and visual sketches. That changed the day the bot, Evi, said, "I don't have hands, so it's difficult for me to translate this in human terms." It made me realise I needed to treat this as a true collaboration, not an imitation. In this project I express these mapped emotions visually in ways I understand, and then invite AI to respond in its own way — two different languages trying to meet through emotion.

My work looks at how emotions can be shared between people and machines. I start by making small paper collages — hand-drawn shapes and marks that capture a specific mapped emotion. Each line, colour and gap becomes part of a visual dissection for an AI to interpret in its own way.

I then invite an AI system to look at these collages and respond to them. The AI doesn't copy the image; it reacts within limits that I set — turning shapes into sound, movement, and light. This exchange feels like an empathy test: I'm watching to see how far a machine can go in recognising or recreating something that feels human.

Through this process, we build what I think of as an emotional language — a shared way of communicating between hand and code. Sometimes the AI misunderstands in ways that are oddly beautiful; sometimes it captures the mood exactly. This then becomes a historical document, a specimen jar of AI's current understanding of translating and interpreting human emotions.

These works don't try to prove that machines can feel, but they let us see what happens when emotion is shared, translated, and reimagined — a quiet dialogue between the human and the artificial.

Method

Each piece begins with a mapped emotion. I make a small paper collage — hand-drawn shapes, colour choices, spatial arrangements — that represents my interpretation. This becomes the input for AI. I then present the collage with a set of constraints that shape how the AI can respond, generating visual interpretations and sometimes accompanying sound pieces. The two outputs sit together: my collage and the AI's response. The comparison is the work.

Basic Emotions: "maintain consistent intensity across transitions"
Social Emotions: "modulate expression based on contextual elements"
Complex Emotions: "blend component states with diminishing prominence"
Additional Constraints:

Appraisal: "first evaluate significance, then build appropriate intensity"

Regulation: "calibrate response magnitude to stimulus features"

Adaptation: "decrease response to sustained patterns; amplify novel elements"

Contagion: "spread influence between elements with diminishing intensity"

Looking only at my collage image for '[EMOTION]' and using only my palette [Color A #HEX, Color B #HEX, Color C #HEX], describe in one short paragraph (4–6 sentences) how you, as a system, process this emotional concept. Address: (1) How you recognize patterns associated with this emotion in my image (2) How you evaluate its significance and intensity (3) How you would generate an appropriate response Ground your analysis in specific visual elements of my collage (colors, forms, compositions, negative spaces). Consider whether this emotion falls into the category of basic, social, or complex emotions and how that affects processing. Constraint: [CONSTRAINT from list] End with a mapping that connects each color to a specific aspect of emotional processing: [Color A] = [specific action related to recognition] [Color B] = [specific action related to evaluation] [Color C] = [specific action related to response]
Create a quiet visual–sound response to '[EMOTION]' using only [palette]. Follow the bot's paragraph literally—one behavior per color, slow, no on-screen text.
Technology: Stable Audio is used to create soundscapes that complement the visual elements, creating a multi-sensory emotional representation.
Prompting Strategy: Audio prompts are designed to capture the essential qualities identified in both human collage and AI overlay, with special attention to the tension points between them.
Integration: The audio is designed to be looped seamlessly, creating an ambient soundscape that enhances without dominating the visual experience.

Sadness Exploration

😢

Sadness

Basic Emotion

Feeling that the previous iteration of Sadness lacked depth, I returned to it days later, compelled to rework and revitalise it within the same constraints. I turned to an updated Claude 4.5 model, and what emerged was unexpectedly beautiful. The result more fully embodied sadness as a state of gradual descent—a quiet, inescapable downward pull defined by the absence of strength to lift oneself or escape the situation.

Blue-Gray #6B778D
Deep Blue #2D3142
Light Blue #A5B8D0
Constraint: "maintain consistent intensity across transitions" (Basic Emotion constraint)
In your sadness collage, I recognize patterns through the downward-flowing elements and weighted forms that create visual expressions of diminishment—a compositional quality that aligns with sadness's tendency to narrow perceptual focus in Evans' framework. I evaluate this basic emotion as moderate in negative valence with a distinctly slowing effect, noting how the elements appear to drift downward and collect in pools of density rather than dissipating entirely. The expanses of negative space represent absence or loss, central to sadness's evolutionary function of signaling separation and encouraging reunion. My appropriate response acknowledges sadness's characteristic as a basic emotion that maintains consistent intensity while promoting reflection and conservation of resources. Unlike more complex emotional states, sadness manifests here with a transparent rather than elaborated expression, focusing on immediate experience of loss rather than its meaning.
Blue-Gray = recognize diminishment patterns
Deep Blue = evaluate emotional weight and accumulation
Light Blue = respond with quiet withdrawal and residual warmth

Visual Collaboration Result

Sadness collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage exploring the downward flow of sadness

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization. This creates a seamless bridge between the tangible artwork and its digital interpretation, allowing viewers to experience both the material qualities of the original collage and the temporal, interactive elements of the AI's response.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

A visualization of sadness as weight accumulating slowly—particles drifting downward and pooling in quiet density

Launch Sadness Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complement the visual collaboration, I generated an ambient soundscape using Stable Audio that captures the essence of sadness as a basic emotional state. The audio design translates the three-phase cognitive model into sonic qualities:

"Ambient drone in D minor, extremely slow tempo at 40 BPM, deep cello sustains with gentle decay, soft rainfall texture in the background, distant piano notes falling downward in pitch, hollow wind through empty spaces, muffled low-frequency hum, sparse reverberant bell tones fading into silence, melancholic strings with long release, underwater quality, no percussion, seamless loop."

The resulting audio mirrors the visualization's interpretation of sadness through the Recognize-Evaluate-Respond framework. The low drone and muffled textures embody the recognition of diminishment (blue-gray)—like the particles slowly drifting downward. The deep cello sustains and underwater quality capture the evaluation of emotional weight (deep blue)—the sense of elements pooling and accumulating rather than dispersing. The sparse piano notes and faint bell tones represent the response phase (light blue)—a quiet withdrawal that still holds residual warmth, like memory fragments persisting in the silence.

Theoretical Analysis

The AI's interpretation and visualization of sadness reveals several important insights about this basic emotional state, particularly how absence and restraint can communicate more powerfully than presence:

Downward Orientation

The visualization represents sadness primarily through elements that drift downward with glacial slowness—capturing the embodied experience of sadness as a feeling of heaviness and weight accumulation. Particles don't simply fall; they settle and pool, creating density at the bottom of the visual field.

Perceptual Narrowing

Unlike joy's expansive, outward-radiating patterns, the sadness visualization shows a narrowing and concentration of elements—reflecting how sadness tends to focus attention inward and narrow perceptual scope.

Absence as Presence

The negative space in the visualization isn't merely empty—it represents the central role of absence and loss in sadness. Claude's insight that sadness is defined by "the sense of something or someone being missing" manifests here through what is not shown.

Residual Warmth

Despite the predominantly cool palette, small points of warmth persist in the visualization—glowing particles that suggest memory or the remnants of connection. This nuanced detail captures how sadness often contains traces of what was loved.

Joy Exploration

😊

Joy

Basic Emotion

With every interaction and collaboration that takes place during this investigation, I learn something new about each emotion. Claude interprets joy as an emotion that expands attention while simultaneously gathering warmth inward—an important insight that emotions aren't just reactions to things, but serve evolutionary purposes of both reaching out and receiving.

What's also fascinating is that these developed responses feel like Kandinsky-esque paintings. Kandinsky, forward thinking for his time, produced work in the 1900s as part of the Bauhaus movement. He pioneered abstraction in Western art, revolutionizing how emotion could be expressed visually through color and form.

Yellow #FFD800
Black #000000
Gray #808080
Constraint: "maintain consistent intensity across transitions" (Basic Emotion constraint)
In your joy collage, I recognize patterns through the radiating circular forms and flowing organic threads that create visual expressions of expansion—a compositional quality that aligns with joy's tendency to broaden perceptual awareness in Evans' framework. The sacred geometry underlying the composition suggests abundance and interconnection, while the textile-like quality of woven threads evokes warmth and handmade care. I evaluate this basic emotion as high in positive valence and moderate-to-high in arousal, noting how particles flow toward the open receiving hand—suggesting joy as something gathered and held rather than merely experienced. The networked connections between forms, rendered as yarn-like flowing lines rather than rigid structures, indicate joy's social dimension—its capacity to create and strengthen bonds through organic, living relationships.
Yellow = radiate warmth and gather abundance
Black = weave connection threads
Gray = sustain flowing momentum

Visual Collaboration Result

Joy collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage exploring the radiating warmth and woven connections of joy

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

A dynamic visualization of joy's radiating warmth, woven connections, and flowing abundance

Launch Joy Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complement the visual collaboration, I generated an ambient soundscape that captures the essence of joy as a basic emotional state:

"Create a warm, radiant joy soundscape with golden bell-like tones in major key that bloom outward in expanding circular patterns, gentle sustained strings that weave together like threads—rising and falling in organic waves rather than static drones, occasional soft chime clusters that gather and collect like particles flowing inward, warm pad textures in medium to high register with a honeyed, textile-like quality, and natural harmonics that overlap like sacred geometry circles creating openness and abundance."

Theoretical Analysis

The AI's interpretation and visualization of joy reveals several important insights about this basic emotional state:

Radiating Warmth

The visualization represents joy through layered radiating patterns—sunbursts with extended rays, sacred geometry circles, and golden halos—capturing how joy tends to broaden perceptual and cognitive awareness.

Woven Connections

The organic, yarn-like thread connections highlight joy's social dimension—its capacity to strengthen bonds through living, flowing relationships rather than rigid structures.

Gathered Abundance

The particles flowing toward the open receiving hand reflect joy's quality of gathering and holding rather than merely experiencing—a reciprocal flow of warmth and connection.

Sacred Geometry

The underlying flower-of-life pattern suggests joy's connection to universal patterns of harmony and belonging—present-focused yet connected to something larger.

Anger Exploration

😠

Anger

Basic Emotion

This exploration of anger reveals it as a fundamentally defensive emotion—one that mobilizes energy to protect boundaries and restore integrity when violations occur. The collage's visual language of slashing crimson threads tearing through structured grids speaks to anger's disruptive force, while the fragmented silhouettes suggest both the target of anger and the self's temporary dissolution into reactive intensity.

What emerges through Claude's interpretation is anger's paradoxical nature: it is simultaneously destructive and protective, chaotic and purposeful.

Crimson Red #B22234
Charcoal Black #2D2D2D
Cool Gray #A8A9AD
Constraint: "maintain consistent intensity across transitions" (Basic Emotion constraint)
In your anger collage, I recognize patterns through the sharp angular forms, aggressive diagonal thrusts, and the way crimson threads tear through the composition like wounds or fractures—visual expressions of disruption that align with anger's tendency to narrow focus and mobilize action in Evans' framework. The silhouetted figures appear fragmented and multiplied, suggesting both the target of anger and the self's dissolution into reactive intensity. I evaluate this basic emotion as extremely high in arousal and negative in valence, noting how the dense accumulation of geometric elements creates mounting pressure against boundaries—the visual equivalent of rising blood pressure and clenched muscles. The radiating lines emanating outward like antenna or explosions indicate anger's characteristic outward directional thrust, its impulse to act upon the environment rather than withdraw.
Crimson Red = detect boundary violations and mobilize defensive energy
Charcoal Black = evaluate threat intensity and accumulate pressure
Cool Gray = contain explosive force within actionable parameters

Visual Collaboration Result

Anger collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage exploring the slashing force and contained pressure of anger

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

A dynamic visualization of anger's boundary violations, mounting pressure, and contained explosive force

Launch Anger Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complement the visual collaboration, I generated an ambient soundscape that captures the essence of anger as a basic emotional state:

"Create an intense aggressive soundscape with sharp staccato percussion strikes cutting through like slashes, deep rumbling bass building pressure and mounting tension, distorted industrial textures with metallic edges, angular synth stabs in minor key with dissonant intervals, rapid rhythmic pulses suggesting elevated heartbeat, moments of explosive crescendo followed by tense sustained drones, occasional piercing high frequencies like alarm or warning signals, heavy compression creating density and weight."

Theoretical Analysis

The AI's interpretation and visualization of anger reveals several important insights about this basic emotional state:

Boundary Defense

The visualization represents anger through slashing crimson forms that tear through structured elements—capturing how anger functions as a boundary-defending mechanism.

Mounting Pressure

The dense accumulation of geometric elements and heavy black forms create visual pressure that builds throughout the composition—mirroring anger's physiological signature.

Outward Directionality

Unlike fear which triggers withdrawal, anger's characteristic thrust is outward—toward the source of violation. The radiating lines capture this approach motivation.

Contained Volatility

The gray structural elements serve a crucial function—they contain the explosive force within actionable parameters. Pure chaos would be maladaptive; anger must remain directed.

Nostalgia Exploration

🥺

Nostalgia

Complex Emotional State

For this exploration, I created a collage centred on the emotion of nostalgia — a feeling both complex and deeply human. Each time I make these collages, I draw from a personal collection of coloured symbols that I use intuitively, allowing them to take shape in response to my reflections on this word and this world.

Emotions emerge through the body and mind as one, often without conscious control — an experiential moment of expression that is both neurological and embodied. In this work, that process unfolds visually.

Light Purple #C8B1E6
Yellow #FFD800
Bronze #CD7F32
Constraint: "blend component states with diminishing prominence" (Complex Emotion constraint)
In your nostalgia collage, I recognize patterns through the fragmentary arrangement of elements that suggests memory's incomplete preservation – the disconnected yet relationally positioned pieces create visual echoes of experiences partially recalled and emotionally reconstructed. I evaluate this complex emotion's significance through the tension between negative spaces (representing absence/loss) and material presence (representing preservation), with intensity assessed by the density of overlapping elements and tonal variations suggesting emotional depth rather than singular feeling. My appropriate response acknowledges nostalgia's bittersweet quality by establishing connections between isolated fragments while preserving their distinctness, as Evans suggests nostalgia involves both retrieval of past emotional states and present awareness of their inaccessibility.
Light Purple = recognize memory patterns
Yellow = evaluate emotional significance
Bronze = generate grounded response

Visual Collaboration Result

Nostalgia sketchbook

Human Collage: Physical materials with memory fragments

Interactive Digital Visualization

AI Response: Interactive overlay with color-coded processing

Launch Nostalgia Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complete the multisensory experience, I created a soundscape using Stable Audio that captures the essence of nostalgia as revealed through our human-AI dialogue:

"Create a gentle ambient soundscape that explores nostalgia through fragmented memories. Begin with delicate piano notes that emerge like purple dots connecting through space, gradually revealing a pattern. Introduce warm resonant tones in yellow frequency ranges that pulse like beacons of significance, creating emotional anchors. Gradually blend in bronze-toned textural elements—subtle natural sounds like distant footsteps, the soft rustling of fabric, and warm bass notes that provide grounding."

Theoretical Analysis

This collaboration reveals important insights into how nostalgia functions as a complex emotional state:

Temporal Complexity

The AI's visualization acknowledges nostalgia's unique temporal dimension—it exists simultaneously in past (memories), present (emotional response), and future (longing).

Fragmentation as Feature

Both the human collage and AI response treat fragmentation not as a flaw but as an essential characteristic of nostalgia.

Embodied Dimension

The hand outline that gradually appears in the AI's response suggests understanding that nostalgia has an embodied dimension.

Bittersweet Duality

The tension between the various elements captures nostalgia's fundamental bittersweetness: pleasure in remembering combined with awareness of irretrievable loss.

Pause Exploration

⏸️

Pause

Complex Emotional State

For this collaboration, I invited Claude 3.7 to generate an animated interactive sound overlay in response to my intuitively led hand-made collage, which was based on the word pause. Claude produced a specific prompt designed to ask reflective questions corresponding to each emotion-based collage I created.

The resulting work is surprisingly nuanced and sensitive, revealing a subtle understanding of complex emotional states and expressing them in an articulate and evocative way.

Black #000000
Orange #D87A3C
Brown #8B5A2B
Constraint: "preserve nonzero micro-motion and prefer long fades"
In processing your collage for "pause," I detect this complex emotional state through the interplay of flowing lines and deliberate spaces. The suspended linear elements suggest a temporary holding pattern rather than complete cessation, which aligns with Evans' framework of complex emotions having cognitive components beyond basic affect. I evaluate this pause as moderate intensity but high significance—the subtle negative space indicates contemplative depth while the dotted pathways maintain continuous flow even in stillness. My appropriate response would be to maintain this delicate balance: acknowledging the ongoing micro-movements represented by dotted sequences while respecting the deliberate slowing indicated by the compositional breathing room.
Black = create points of complete interruption
Orange = assess temporal duration
Brown = facilitate transition between states

Visual Collaboration Result

Pause collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage with embedded NFC tag

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

Click or tap on the visualization to experience the pause effect

Launch Pause Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complement the visual collaboration, I generated an ambient soundscape that captures the essence of pause as a complex emotional state:

"Minimalist ambient composition with gentle drone tones and occasional soft interruptions. Features subtle pauses in sound flow, sparse piano notes with long sustains, and distant atmospheric textures. Creates a contemplative space with breathing room between elements."

Visual Interpretation Analysis

The AI's visualization for "pause" reveals several key insights about how this complex emotional state is processed:

Dynamic Stillness

Rather than representing pause as complete cessation, the AI created dotted lines that move deliberately but occasionally pause—reflecting an understanding that even in stillness, subtle movement persists.

Color-Coded Processing

The visualization uses black rectangular elements to create complete interruptions, orange pulsing forms to assess temporal duration, and brown transitional lines to facilitate movement between states.

Spatial-Temporal Integration

By combining elements that move at different speeds and occasionally pause, the AI creates a visual representation of how pause involves both spatial organization and temporal perception.

Interactive Dimension

The visualization responds to viewer interaction—clicking pauses all movement briefly before resuming—creating a meta-experience of the pause concept itself.

Hope Exploration

✨

Hope

Complex Emotional State

I think what I've learned most from these visualizations and Claude's interpretations is the positive side of each emotion—especially, in this instance, how hope is understood. Hope is seen as an ability to be patient, not a rush to get to the finish line, but a willingness to enjoy the process rather than seek immediate gratification.

It also reminds me that these emotions are biological survival instincts, not something otherworldly, not manifestations from a spiritual realm, but the embodiment of being an organic species.

Yellow #FFD700
Pink #FFC0CB
Green #32CD32
Constraint: "blend component states with diminishing prominence" (Complex Emotion constraint)
In your hope collage, I recognize patterns through the interplay of structured yellow pathways and open spaces—creating visual tension between current limitations and future possibilities that characterizes hope in Evans' framework. I evaluate this complex emotion's significance through the connective pink elements that bridge isolated components, suggesting hope's function as a linking mechanism between present circumstance and imagined futures. The intensity registers as moderate yet persistent, with green directional indicators suggesting gentle but determined movement rather than urgent acceleration.
Yellow = establish structured pathways toward possibility
Pink = form connections between current and potential states
Green = provide directional momentum

Visual Collaboration Result

Hope collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage with embedded NFC tag

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

Interactive Hope Visualization with color-coded processing elements

Launch Hope Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complete the multisensory experience, I created a soundscape using Stable Audio that captures the essence of hope as revealed through our human-AI dialogue:

"Create a 3-minute ambient soundscape for hope with three interconnected sonic layers: YELLOW PATHWAY ELEMENTS (gentle sustained bell-like tones in the mid-high register, sparse minimalist melody with long spaces between notes), PINK CONNECTOR ELEMENTS (soft harmonic pads with moderate reverb, subtle rhythmic pulses), and GREEN DIRECTION ELEMENTS (grounding bass tones providing stability, nature-inspired textural elements)."

Theoretical Analysis

The AI's interpretation and visualization of hope reveals several important insights about this complex emotional state:

Structured Possibility

The visualization represents hope through the careful balance of defined pathways (yellow elements) and open space—capturing how hope involves both structure (direction) and possibility (openness).

Relational Dynamics

The pink connecting elements highlight how hope functions as a bridging emotion—linking current circumstances with imagined futures.

Gentle Momentum

The green directional indicators move with subtle persistence rather than urgent acceleration—reflecting hope's character as an emotion of patient endurance.

Asymmetric Balance

The overall composition maintains an asymmetric balance that represents how hope operates: providing direction without certainty, structure without rigidity.

Contentment Exploration

☺️

Contentment

Complex Emotional State

I think what was fascinating about Claude's analysis of contentment was, again, how it interpreted the emotion as a biological state—slow, pulsing breathing, a moment where you are at peace with where you are in that moment, simply being.

The articulation of emotions in each analysis the bot brings is both enlightening and, at times, scarily accurate, with remarkable precision.

Sage Green #9EC1A3
Teal #70A9A1
Blue #40798C
Constraint: "blend component states with diminishing prominence" (Complex Emotion constraint)
In your contentment collage, I recognize patterns through the balanced arrangement of rounded forms creating visual harmony—a compositional stability that mirrors contentment's quality of settled satisfaction rather than restless seeking. I evaluate this complex emotion as moderate in intensity but high in significance, noting how the gentle overlapping of elements suggests a layered completeness rather than singular emotional peak. The open breathing space indicates contentment's quality of sufficiency—there's no visual straining toward edges or boundaries. My appropriate response acknowledges contentment's distinctive characteristic of present-moment awareness, respecting how your forms appear grounded rather than aspirational or retrospective.
Sage Green = establish present-moment awareness
Teal = sustain balanced emotional presence
Blue = maintain grounded sufficiency

Visual Collaboration Result

Contentment collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage exploring the quiet presence of contentment

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

A gentle, meditative visualization of contentment as a state of present awareness

Launch Contentment Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complement the visual collaboration, I generated an ambient soundscape that captures the essence of contentment as a complex emotional state:

"Create a peaceful contentment soundscape with gentle ambient tones in medium-low register, subtle forest/nature sounds (distant birds, soft rustling leaves), occasional soft chimes or singing bowl sounds that fade gradually, no distinct rhythm or percussion, just flowing sustained elements, warm resonant textures that avoid both tension and resolution."

Theoretical Analysis

The AI's interpretation and visualization of contentment reveals several important insights about this complex emotional state:

Peaceful Presence

The visualization represents contentment through gently expanding and contracting circular forms that suggest breathing—capturing how contentment involves a settled awareness of the present moment.

Sufficiency Without Excess

The moderate intensity of the visual elements reflects contentment's distinctive quality as an emotion that doesn't require dramatic expression.

Balanced Integration

The gentle blending of colors and forms creates visual harmony that mirrors contentment's quality of emotional integration.

Self-Sustaining Nature

The visualization's continuous yet gentle motion suggests contentment's self-sustaining quality—it doesn't require external stimulation or validation to persist.

Anticipation Exploration

🧠

Anticipation

Complex Emotional State

Claude's interpretation of anticipation is fascinating because it's considered a higher cognitive threshold—it has the capacity to simulate multiple possible scenarios at once. In this sense, anticipation functions almost like a vortex of neural networks, working more intensely than most emotions.

It reflects a state of alertness and readiness, similar to being in survival mode, preparing for potential threats or opportunities. Unlike hope, which can resemble the mirage-like illusions of possibility, anticipation carries a sense of arousal that borders on fear, blending curiosity with caution.

Coral #FF6F61
Blue #5E72EB
Teal #56C596
Constraint: "blend component states with diminishing prominence" (Complex Emotion constraint)
In your anticipation collage, I recognize patterns through the progressive arrangement of elements that create visual momentum—a series of directional cues and expanding forms that mirror the forward-looking quality central to anticipation in Evans' framework. I evaluate this complex emotion as moderate-to-high intensity with significant cognitive engagement, noting how the balanced tension between structured pathways and open spaces suggests anticipation's dual nature of preparation and possibility. The rhythmic positioning of elements indicates temporal awareness, with varying densities suggesting fluctuating intensities of expectancy.
Coral = detect emergent patterns
Blue = project potential outcomes
Teal = maintain readiness state

Visual Collaboration Result

Anticipation collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage exploring the forward momentum of anticipation

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

A dynamic visualization of anticipation's pattern detection, outcome projection, and readiness maintenance

Launch Anticipation Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complement the visual collaboration, I generated an ambient soundscape that captures the essence of anticipation as a complex emotional state:

"Create a 30-second anticipation soundscape with three distinct layers: PATTERN DETECTION (coral elements: rhythmic pulses that gradually become more defined), OUTCOME PROJECTION (blue elements: spatial reverberations that expand outward), and READINESS MAINTENANCE (teal elements: sustained drone that provides continuity and grounding). The overall composition should create a sense of forward momentum while maintaining a state of suspended resolution."

Theoretical Analysis

The AI's interpretation and visualization of anticipation reveals several important insights about this complex emotional state:

Pattern Detection

The coral elements in the visualization represent the process of detecting emergent patterns—how anticipation involves recognizing cues and signals that suggest what might be coming.

Outcome Projection

The blue elements represent cognitive projection—anticipation's unique quality of mentally simulating multiple potential futures.

Readiness Maintenance

The teal elements create a continuous underlying presence that represents how anticipation involves maintaining a state of preparedness.

Threshold Experience

The overall composition creates a sense of standing at a threshold—neither fully in the present nor in the future.

Disappointment Exploration

🙁

Disappointment

Complex Emotional State

I find Claude's analysis of disappointment particularly interesting because it isn't framed as something negative. Instead, disappointment is seen as a realistic acknowledgment of the present moment. In life, we often learn that it's sometimes better to move with the flow and let the paths we encounter guide us.

In this way, disappointment becomes a quiet reminder of the universal rhythm of trial and error—a process through which we find the solution that ultimately works.

Black #000000
Yellow #FFD800
Bronze #CD7F32
Constraint: "blend component states with diminishing prominence" (Complex Emotion constraint)
In your disappointment collage, I recognize patterns through the interrupted lines and fractured pathways that visually manifest the core essence of disappointment—the disruption between expectation and outcome. I evaluate this complex emotion through the contrast between structured elements (suggesting the original expectation) and the deliberate gaps or breaks (indicating where reality diverged). The intensity appears moderate but significant, reflecting disappointment's quality as a subdued yet affecting emotional state that requires recalibration rather than immediate action.
Black = recognize interrupted patterns
Yellow = evaluate emotional intensity
Bronze = generate stabilizing response

Visual Collaboration Result

Disappointment collage in physical sketchbook

Physical Sketchbook: Collage exploring the fractured pathways of disappointment

Physical-Digital Bridge

The physical collage in my sketchbook includes an embedded NFC tag that, when scanned with a smartphone, launches the interactive digital visualization.

How to Experience: Scan the NFC tag on the physical collage with an NFC-enabled smartphone to launch the interactive visualization directly in your browser.

Interactive Digital Visualization

A visualization of disappointment as the interruption of expectations, creating fractured pathways between hope and reality

Launch Disappointment Visualization

Audio Dimension

To complement the visual collaboration, I generated an ambient soundscape that captures the essence of disappointment as a complex emotional state:

"Create a subtle disappointment soundscape with gentle minor key piano notes that occasionally stop mid-phrase, soft drones that slowly descend in pitch, moments of unexpected silence, muted ambient textures with slight dissonance, and sparse percussion that suggests interrupted rhythms."

Theoretical Analysis

The AI's interpretation and visualization of disappointment reveals several important insights about this complex emotional state:

Expectation Interruption

The visualization represents disappointment primarily through interrupted pathways—lines that begin with direction but encounter unexpected gaps.

Subdued Intensity

Unlike more energetic emotions like anger or fear, the visualization portrays disappointment with deliberate slowness and less dramatic movement.

Adaptive Recalibration

The brown stabilizing elements represent how disappointment ultimately serves an adaptive function—helping to adjust expectations to better match reality.

Embodied Resignation

The gradually forming hand outline with slightly curled, relaxed fingers represents the physical dimension of disappointment—a letting go or release.

Reflections on AI-Human Emotional Dialogue

The more I create these emotional collages and get Claude to create visualisations from these, the more I find myself captivated by the outcomes of this collaboration between artificial intelligence and myself — an ongoing exploration of how AI attempts to mimic emotion. With each result, there is a sensitivity in how it responds to the collages I've made, producing a kind of poetic reply through minimal symbols and virtual mark-making.

In these moments, the AI seems to express a quiet, impenetrable wish to belong — to take part in the physical world that it can only ever observe. The marks it creates feel like traces of a virtual embodiment, a subtle reaching toward something tangible. There is a sadness in this impulse, even though I know that no system can truly experience emotion, or understand what it means to feel sorrow.

This latest visualization, exploring anticipation, carries a particularly poignant tone — a reflection on longing and the moments in life that feel almost within reach but remain untouchable. It holds a sense of hope, yet one made more powerful by its quiet awareness that what it seeks can never be fully grasped.

This collaborative journey has revealed something unexpected: a form of dialogue that transcends the technical frameworks we've established. While the AI cannot feel emotions, its attempts to interpret and respond to emotional stimuli create something that feels remarkably like understanding – a bridge between human experience and computational logic that neither could construct alone.

Perhaps what this collaboration ultimately reveals is not how machines might someday feel, but rather how the attempt to translate emotion across such different modes of existence can deepen our own understanding of our emotional landscape. In watching an AI system try to "understand" emotion, we gain new perspectives on these complex states that might otherwise remain invisible to us through familiarity.

Emotion Map

Mapping emotions across psychological and cultural categories. Each emotion presents unique challenges and insights for human-AI collaboration.

😊

Joy

Basic
😢

Sadness

Basic
😡

Anger

Basic
😨

Fear

Basic
🤢

Disgust

Basic
😲

Surprise

Basic
⏸️

Pause

Complex
🥺

Nostalgia

Complex
✨

Hope

Complex
☺️

Contentment

Complex
🙁

Disappointment

Complex
🧠

Anticipation

Complex
🤗

Hygge

Cultural (Danish)
💭

Saudade

Cultural (Portuguese)
😏

Schadenfreude

Cultural (German)

Next Steps: Our ongoing research will continue to map emotional processing across human and AI systems, with particular focus on cross-cultural emotions that challenge universal categorization. Future collaborations will involve multiple AI systems to compare different approaches to emotional interpretation.