Master Thesis in Digital Design
University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, 2025
Emotions Unlocked is an interactive media installation that investigates the concept of emotional openness and its importance in contemporary society. The project was developed as part of my master thesis in Digital Design at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten and reflects my interest in combining artistic expression with emerging technologies.
The central question guiding the work is how emotions can become visible and shareable without the need for verbal explanation or scientific classification. Rather than framing emotions as something that has to be measured or categorized, the installation opens a space where they can simply be experienced and acknowledged. Participants are invited to interact with the system through their facial expressions and body movements. These gestures are captured in real time and translated into atmospheric visualizations made of softly moving, glowing circles of color. Each motion or expression triggers subtle or dramatic shifts in the composition, allowing users to perceive their own emotions as a living visual landscape.
From a technical perspective the installation was realized with vvvv gamma. Facial tracking was achieved through a webcam combined with vl.MediaPipe, while body tracking relied on the ZED 2i camera. The data was streamed into Wekinator, where a machine learning model was trained to differentiate between eight basic emotional states. The classification results were sent back to vvvv gamma, where they directly influenced the visual output. Emotional states determined aspects such as the dominant color palette, the intensity of movement and the structural layering of the generated visuals. In this way, the abstract forms became an immediate reflection of the participants’ emotional presence.
Conceptually the installation functions as a resonance space. It does not evaluate, label or interpret emotions but mirrors them in a way that is direct and perceptible. The experience emphasizes that emotional expression does not always need words or explanations to be understood. Instead it invites openness in a quiet and intuitive manner. Participants encounter their own emotions in a new medium and, at the same time, share them with others who witness the visuals.
The work positions itself within a broader social context where emotional openness is often seen as vulnerable or even inappropriate. By transforming emotions into immersive visual experiences, Emotions Unlocked suggests that openness can be freeing, creative and valuable. It demonstrates how art and technology together can build spaces that encourage reflection and dialogue about how we express and perceive feelings.
