A series of visual compositions that translate Paul Ekman’s six basic emotions into colour and motion. Each postcard reflects a fixed moment of feeling, while the animated versions shift in brightness and intensity according to the Circumplex Model of Emotions. Valence determines the lightness of colour; arousal drives the rhythm of movement.

Note: Hover over the postcards to reveal the emotions and colours.

Participants chose a colour to visualise their emotional state, projecting an aura surrounding them. The system records these chromatic choices, revealing the personal and cultural ways people link colour to feeling. What is usually hidden within becomes visible, allowing others to glimpse another’s inner atmosphere.

Note: Hover over the users to reveal their auras.

Layers of hidden emotions are uncovered through light and interaction. On paper, ultraviolet light exposes fluorescent paint and invisible ink, revealing colour and forms as signs of affect. On screen, the blank expressions of passengers conceal gradients until motion tracking directs a gaze to reveal their inner state.

A digital sphere becomes a mirror of human expression. Smiles warm its surface to yellow, while frowns stain it red. When expressions intensify, the sphere distorts into restless motion. The work speculates on interfaces where emotion is not measured as data but embodied as elemental expression.

Inspired by Chladni figures, this speculative experiment explores how emotions can generate their own symbolic forms. Facial expression data are mapped to twist and noise parameters, causing the visuals to shift and distort based on emotional intensity. Each “symbol” emerges from the interaction between the user’s expression and the algorithm, suggesting a future where emotions are communicated not through words, but through generative visual patterns.

An interactive prototype that turns micro-expressions into shifting visuals, revealing emotions we often hide — even from ourselves.

Using facial tracking, the mirror detects subtle cues of happiness, anger and sadness translating them into real-time colour and motion. By confronting their own emotional states, viewers are invited to reflect on how technology can recognise and respond to human emotion.