Kavya Barthwal
The Feeling Matrix is a speculative project that presents a visual and verbal dictionary of emotions. Six animations visualize six precise emotional experiences that don’t have an equivalent word in the English Language. Many of us have experienced these feelings but might lack the vocabulary to name them.
The project attempts to explore an alternative visual grammar that seeks to transcend the barriers of traditional languages. Using an abstract, expressive system, this visual vocabulary of evocation references the commonality of emotions and the elusive task of precisely defining them.
But much like our emotions clouds are in a constant state of transition. Pieces of an ambiguous puzzle that camouflage into one another giving rise to new forms until it’s hard to tell them apart.
The Feeling Matrix is a visual language that examines the associations of signs and meanings. It is an expressive system that specifically embodies the formal qualities of emotions using different building blocks that are malleable- creating new meanings by their interactions. It hopes to offer a new way of understanding the commonality of emotions and the elusive task of precisely defining them.
Norwegian (v.)
The euphoria experienced while falling in love or being in love.
Japanese (v.)
The act of staring at nothing without thinking of anything.
Danish (n.)
The pleasant and intimate feeling associated with sitting around a fire with friends in the winter.
Italian (n.)
The drowsiness experienced after eating a large meal.
French (n.)
The feeling of not being in one’s home country.
The 3 parts exhibit included- the shape matrix, 8’X8’ projection, word list along with a website interface. The intent was to create a larger than life experience of being immersed in the world of these unique emotions.
The shape matrix, word list and website interface act as entry points in to the process of creating this speculative language system.
The website creates and opportunity for the viewer to experience this world more intimately.
Allowing them to engage and navigate through the system, animations, insights in to the meaning of these words and most importantly how to pronounce them.
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.”
Georgia O’Keeffe