# data[].attributes.body
The installation that I have developed for the exhibition in Dilston Grove is a VR

experience based on the research conducted by Robert Plutchik concerning human

emotions.

This research aimed to give a scientific definition of emotions, carrying on an analysis

through different disciplines, such as biology, chemistry and psychology. So, this

installation shows my artistic response to the just mentioned research.

To do that, I have composed a musical piece for each primary emotion, trying to

represent what those emotions mean to me and how I feel them.

Then, I have created a digital room that takes inspiration from Plutchiks’ wheel of

emotion, using the same colours attributed by the psychologist to represent the

primary emotions.

Here, I have programmed the sound to make it come from the walls, as each of those

corresponds to a different primary emotion, so to the relative composition. In this way,

when you get close to a specific wall, you will hear the corresponding song. While, if

you are between two, you will listen to the two compositions mixed, symbolising the

secondary emotion. Instead, if you are in the middle of the room, you will hear only

some hi-pitch sounds representing the balanced state.

Then, I programmed a VR experience in which the exhibition guests will use a VR

headset to see the digital room and move the camera and a controller to move the

digital body character.

# data[].attributes.body
I started my research by inquiring about the concept of visual music. I immediately

discovered that this category includes an extraordinary variety of works of art, very

different from each other.

Visual music is any practice that involves the presence of a sound and visual

component intending to convey specific messages. These practices date back to the

eighteenth century, even before cinematography and electroacoustics.

Over time, however, this denomination was increasingly attributed to pieces for art

exhibitions, with some exceptions as the experimental films of the futurists Arnaldo

Ginna and Bruno Corra (Garro, 2012).

What helps differentiate cinematographic from visual music practices is that the latter

does not need any plot to convey the desired message. Therefore, if the cinema is an

audiovisual novel, visual music is audiovisual poetry (Piché, 2003).

Continuing to progress over time, the desire to directly involve the viewer has

increasingly manifested. For this reason, more and more artists began to try their hand

at interactive works, exploiting in most cases the extraordinary technological progress

of the last decades, giving life to admirable artworks.

A way to make this participation possible is by using VR devices. Those are great tools

that guarantee the possibility of total immersion within a digital space that can be

modelled and programmed as the artist wishes, regardless of any physical law.

Given its potential, this technology, although relatively recent, has already been widely

used in the most diverse artistic fields. Focusing on sonic arts, the use of VR guarantees

the possibility of creating considerably complex sonic environments, within which the

viewer is free to move both physically and digitally, depending on the installation.

However, to fully exploit this tool, it is necessary to have at least a basic knowledge

concerning software for digital implementation and programming. So, I deepened my

knowledge of Unity to get the skills to create the room I had in mind and program it as I

wished.

Concerning musical composition, I decided to take inspiration from the loop-based

music typical of video games, studying some of the compositional techniques used in

this field. I decided that because, in this way, the viewer does not have to listen to the

whole composition, but it only takes a few seconds to capture the emotion in question,

thus he can continue moving in space.

In addition, the experience I thought of for Dilston Grove should last from 2 to 4

minutes, so I consider that this is the most effective method for achieving the desired

result.

# data[].attributes.body
The beating heart of this Major Project is the direct link with Robert Plutchiks' research

on human emotions.

In particular, the reference work is his famous article published in 2001 in the

American Scientist journal: "The nature of emotions: Human emotions have deep

evolutionary roots, a fact that can explain their complexity and provide tools for clinical

practice" (Plutchik, 2001).

In this article, Plutchik analyses four approaches used in the scientific field to establish

the nature of emotions and how they divide and interact with each other.

During this research Plutchik discovers that emotions are not a linear event in time.

They are more like a feedback loop process. Assuming that, the function of emotions is

to restore a state of balance when something unusual or unexpected happens,

generating an imbalanced state.

Plutchik theories that it is possible to conceptualise primary emotions through an

association with the primary colour wheel, which sees similar ones close to each other

while the opposites are 180°away.

As for the colours, the sums of primary emotions generate all other subordinate

emotions. He also recognised that the still balance between the primary emotions has a

strong relationship with the personality of individuals.

Furthermore, the "Wheel Of Emotions" is developed on a three-dimensional plane,

where the depth represents the intensity of the emotions.

Primary emotions come from the psycho-evolutionary theory started by Darwin, which

describes eight basic emotional dimensions arranged in four opposing pairs (Plutchik,

1984).

# data[].attributes.body
The installation in question takes its cue from the schematic representation conceived

by Plutchik, using the Wheel of Emotions, made, as well, by the psychologist, as a canon

to create the digital room.

The reason why I found this research particularly interesting lies in the fact that it has

raised many questions in me, which brought me to a process of self-analysis.

First, I asked myself what could be the balance of my emotional sphere. Trying to

identify within my personality which of the primary emotions I feel to be predominant.

Later I wanted to represent each of these emotions through music.

To do this, I tried to identify myself psychologically with the feeling that I was trying to

describe as much as possible. To make sure that the compositional process was

dictated directly by the emotion.

We must recognise the fact that the result obtained is subjective. As Plutchik himself

states, everybody has a different emotional balance, way to perceive and somatise

emotions. So, anyone who wants to represent these emotions will get a different result,

even if some of these representations might have some common traits.

Moreover, what I found out is the almost impossibility of isolating one single primary

emotion. As in the flow of thoughts, these emotions are continuously merging and

confusing with each other. Therefore, it is difficult to isolate and maintain a self-induced

emotional state, which represents one of these emotions in particular.

To conclude, I would like to highlight the fact that the main reason why I wanted to

create this installation is that I would like to encourage anyone to undertake this self-

analysis process, as I believe that this method can help to achieve greater self-

awareness

, which can contribute to our inner growth as well as benefits our mental health.

# data[].attributes.body
- Garro, D., 2012.

From sonic art to visual music: Divergences, convergences, intersections: Organised Sound: Vol 17, No 2.

[online] Dl.acm.org. Available at: <

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1017/S1355771812000027

>.

- Piche ́, J., 2003. De la musique et des images. CIRCUIT: Revue nord-ame ́ricaine de musique du XXe`me sie`cle 13(3), E ́

lectroacoustique: Nouvelles Utopies. Available at

http://www.jeanpiche.com/Textes/images.htm.

- Plutchik, R., 2001. The Nature of Emotions.

American Scientist

, 89(4), p.344.

- Plutchik, R., 1984.

Emotions: A general psychoevolutionary theory,

pp.197-219.