The enigmatics of affect
Affective computation generally focuses on the informatics of affect: structuring, formalizing, and representing emotion as informational units. We propose instead an enigmatics of affect, a critical technical practice that respects the rich and undefinable complexities of human affective experience. Our interactive installation, the Influencing Machine, allows users to explore a dynamic landscape of emotionally expressive sound and child-like drawings, using a tangible, intuitive input device that supports open-ended engagement. The Influencing Machine bridges the subjective experience of the user and the necessary objective rationality of the underlying code. It functions as a cultural probe, reflecting and challenging users to reflect on the cultural meaning of affective computation.