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The video is called Flow of Emotions, which is an artistic representation of Bodily Maps of Emotions. This is an article written by Lauri Nummenmaa and their research team members. According to them, subjective emotional feelings are related to the somatosensory system. Their topographical self-report method research results indicate that those emotion-related sensations have a higher consistency across cultures. Moreover, the head area had increased bodily sensations, such as facial musculature activation and higher skin temperature. The chest area has also shown a fast heartbeat or heavy breathing. While active bodily sensations of happiness were observed all over the body, sadness decreased limb activity.

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The video consists of four scenarios. The first scene shows the flow of active and passive bodily sensations. Since I associated the active sensation with hot water, I conducted a scientific experiment of hot and cold water movement. Due to the water density, hot water stays on top of the cold water. The second scene reflects the intensity of the head and the upper body activity. As blue and red water starts getting mixed, the performer experiences an intense feeling. In order to let the audience think of their own feelings and engage in the video, the type of emotion is not indicated in the video.

After that, the camera moves to lower body activity. Although the performer is trying to be more active, there is less sensation in the legs and feet. The video ends with a purple bubble, which is made of baking soda and purple vinegar. As an artist, I would like to mention that not all feelings can be described scientifically. The purple bubble is a depiction of the complexity of human emotions, which can be translated into different colours and body temperature depending on the personal stories of each audience. The ambient music was chosen to create a mood of deep thinking so that the audience would feel like they are experiencing the flow of emotions physically. The colourful water and vinegar were coloured by using food colour.

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- Manami Izawa

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