Devices of Affective Surveillance

Conference Stream Life. What are the upcoming cultural and political implications of gathering affective data on large populations? In this panel, the next level of face recognition technologies, face expression recognition tools, will be discussed as devices of subcortical scanning. Since Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, it is known that genetically determined aspects of behaviour can be traced through the expression of emotion on the most semantically important surface of our bodies: the face. Over the course of the past decade, we have also witnessed the rise of affective neuroscience and the study of faces as an interface of affect. As a consequence of the intensive study of affect, a variety of software applications that can detect “emotion” have been introduced to public and private use. As we have entered the age of “big data”, what would be the cultural and political implications of gathering affective data on large populations? Can this data be actually used to improve the quality of life or does it become another tool for discrimination or social isolation? We will take a quick look at neuroscientist and emotion theorist Paul Ekman’s highly popularised work on facial expressions, and MIT Media Lab faculty Rosalin Picard’s project Affdex, a webcam based system that detects “the emotional connection between people and brands.” Emotion detection is a free entrance pass to the limbic system that is positioned at the centre of our brains and our lives. What would be the outcome of opening our subcortical neural networks to the corporate networks of power?

ANS arrousal (Automatic Nervous System): James lang theory (Stimulation -> ANS -> Emotion); Cannon-bard theory (Stimulation -> ANS & Emotion)

Some names and remarks:

Damasio - Descartes' Error
Philip Gage => lost connection between emotion and reason
Joseph LeDoux => Small Amygolala (emotion in stress situation)
Paul Ekman - standization of the face

The relation between emotion & heat body map.

Tracking emotion

7 ways
Detect by use of voice wheter woman is mother of boy.
Q-sensor / Emotient (see vimeo!) -> read your emotion -> also interested in guiding 'proper' emotional respones
Real Eyes ( "the more people feel the more they spend")
- www.realeyes.it - emotional inteligence
Affectiva
- 2410000 faces scanned
- how could you use affective data to your product?

Emotion Economy

Content when sadness is detected
Difference Affect & emotion/feelings
Affective algorithms ("personification without a person" - An Mertens)
- Affect is a-social/a-personal
Affective dispositive
- Affect as world filter
- Is shame a basic affect? (Thompkins)
- High intensity: happiness
- Low intensity: depression
- See also frequency of (body) movement
- Degrees of freedom principle

It goes from Big Brother to Pleasing Little Sister (Pickard?)

Affective computing/surveillance
The current rule keeps you in check by pleasing you as it's anticipating on your emotions.

When measuring affect/emotions => body and vocal behavior/variables are interpreted to universalities. [As they're based on statistics?]

Authorities are sometimes the best to handle new digital society.

Temple Grandin => Technology brings her closer to others.

"Autism is a good way to focus on the world."

Autistic people benefit from affective computing (??)

Social construct of affect today.

Facebook: augmented effect
- Where/how algorithms intervene
Foucault Power vs. Knowledge. Now: Reason vs. Logic [??]
- Reason & emotion both result of tension with Umwelt.
Networks as projection of our relation to the world.
Affect => put in notion of constant trauma.
Damasio => holistic paradigm => "invent" constantly new affects.

Can you deliberately 'trick' your body into an emotion by changing body heat etc? (or deliberately change body heat to trick the system) Probably not, see ie. medicine to raise heart rate.

Manipulating the variables of the body.

Knowing your own data, people believe they'll know more about themselves. They have a promise in them that you can grasp your unconscious.

Heart rate monitor research: people use their logs/data to construct their own narrative, make excuses etc.

Mathematization of normality

The 'standard' [average] creates/imposes the normal behaviour
Neuroplasticity => create trauma to improve itself.

Degrees of Freedom: The concept of degrees of freedom is central to the principle of estimating statistics of populations from samples of them.
Temple Grandin: an American professor of animal science at Colorado State University, a best-selling author, an autistic activist