Angela Lee – Looking Outwards – 07

The Atlas of Emotions by Dr. Paul Ekman in collaboration with Stamen Design intrigues me because of its subject on emotion. When I think of data visualization, I typically imagine quantitative data, and while this project did incorporate some quantitative data, the categorization of emotions is much more qualitative. I was intrigued by this project because of how layered the research was. Not only did the team investigate emotions, they conducted research on moods (vs. emotions), triggers, intensity of emotion, and all these factors came into play in their final data visualization. The visuals were largely based off of circles so their algorithms must include ellipses that gradually grow when mouseX, mouse Y in the vicinity. I think their artistic sensibilities manifested in using primitive shapes to represent emotions and story rather than more iconic representations. I really enjoyed how they combined words and visuals to tell a compelling, universal story.