Mood Swings: design and evaluation of affective interactive art

The field of affective computing is concerned with developing emphatic products, such as affective consumer products, affective games, and affective art. This paper describes Mood Swings, an affective interactive art system, which interprets and visualizes affect expressed by a person. Mood Swings consists of eight luminous orbs that react to movement. When a person experiences certain emotion, his/her movements are claimed to have certain characteristics. Based on the integration of a framework for affective movements and a color model, Mood Swings recognizes affective movement characteristics, and subsequently displays a color that matches the expressed emotion. Mood Swings was evaluated in a museum for contemporary art by 36 museum visitors. The Trajectory of Interaction (ToI) was applied to assess common phases in interacting with Mood Swings, i.e. response, control, contemplation, belonging, and disengagement. The visitors who interacted with Mood Swings were videotaped. Results showed that The ToI could be identified, although not all phases were experienced by everyone. Few participants reached the contemplation phase and none of them reached the belonging phase. All together, the introduction of the new affective interactive art system was a success.