PANASONIC EMOTIONS

 

Panasonic Emotions, 2002, (variable dimension), SD Audio Player Panasonic, reproducers, mini-amplifier

 

Nowadays, it is possible to meet people unable to experience this world through their own emotions.  Although it is emotions that convey personality, for most people the expression of emotion is deemed inappropriate.  The person that outwardly shows his/her emotions is often undermined in society due to others seeing them as over-the-top, ridiculous, pathetic, silly, or pitiful.  It is, therefore, desirable to rid ourselves of emotion or, failing that, to take good care to keep them under control.

If we learn to master our emotions, it follows that there will eventually be more and more people lacking in them.  That is the reason why I became development designer for the Panasonic Company.  One aspect of our collaboration was the commercial plan to promote vanishing human emotions as scarce goods, something that had begun to be rare.

I offered the company collaboration in the development of a special techno-prosthesis.  It was intended that this should become a spare storage space for emotions that could then be utilised by someone who felt that their own emotions had degenerated so much that he/she was having problems with sufficiently experiencing life.

The machine itself looks like a Walkman with headphones, the playing of which is not directed into the wearer’s ear but actually transmitted outwards from the head.  Their function is to emotionally communicate with the external environment.  They are not intended only for the internal needs of their owner, so the device is also equipped with a small amplifier.

The memory of the chip card of the SD Audio Player holds a vast number of audio recordings of authentic human emotions.   When the owner wishes to express him/herself through acoustic emotions but feels physically unable, the machine would give them the opportunity to find an appropriate emotion on the display of the SD Audio Player – whining, hysterical quarrelling, or chaotic giggling, for example.