Emotive Modeler
An Emotive Form Design CAD Tool
How can we design using emotion as well as physicality?
The EmotiveModeler integrates our unconscious understanding and emotive perception of shapes into a CAD tool that allows both novice and expert designers to use only descriptive adjectives and emotions to design objects whose forms communicate emotive character.
Mapping emotions to forms
Building on existing research into emotive shapes[1-2,4], forms are broken down into their constituent design elements and mapped onto the circumplex model of emotion[5] and eight primary emotions[3]. This quantitative emotive form design taxonomy is then integrated into the Rhino 3D modeling software. When a designer types a word into the EmotiveModeler UI, the system analyses the emotional associations to the word and combines the relevant design elements to generate a 3D model whose forms reflect the emotive character of even complex emotive adjectives.
This suggested design is just the initial inspiration for a creative conversation between the designer and the EmotiveModeler; they can modify the emotions associated with the inputted words and therefore manipulate the resulting forms to reflect their personal interpretation of the emotive character they wish to convey in their designs.
1] Collier, G. L. (1996). Affective synesthesia: Extracting emotion space from simple perceptual stimuli. Motivation and Emotion, 20(1), 1-32.
[2] Isbister, K., Höök, K., Laaksolahti, J., & Sharp, M. (2007). The sensual evaluation instrument: Developing a trans-cultural self-report measure of affect International journal of human-computer studies, 65(4), 315-328
[3] Plutchik, R. (1980). Emotion: A psycho-evolutionary synthesis (p. 440). New York: Harper & Row
[4] Poffenberger, A. T., & Barrows, B. E. (1924). The Feeling Value of Lines. Journal of Applied Psychology, 8(2), 187.
[5] Russell, James A. A circumplex model of affect. Journal of personality and social psychology 39.6 (1980): 1161-1178