Page 110 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014NEW EMOTIONS INVENTED BY THE INTERNEThttp://visual.ly/new‐emotions‐invented‐internet‐vs‐w‐gerrod‐parrott% E2%80%99s‐emotion‐classificationgoing to enjoy them or consume them.Into this context of the so‐called “cultural products”, including those that provide access to them or make them, technology has burst in—a technology which in some of its facets may also be considered a part of the culture and a product in itself—in different ways, as I have just observed. From the most complex latest‐generation devices to the normal standards of online communication (website design, social networks, mobile apps, etc.), the various technologies available today can—and already do— add a new value to what we understand as cultural products and the cultural sector. One of its most complex phases, although not the latest nor apparently the most novel, is the emotional factor, the affective and sometimes sensorial contribution of these technologies in their various forms.Having reached this point, we can define the emotions rather generically as those affective states that emerge as a subjective reaction to certain stimuli, whether objects, memories, sensations, acts or occurrences and the experience arising from them. Physiologically these emotions may be expressed as gestures, particular facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. Behaviourally it might influence our relations with others. In psychology, according to a classification by Carroll Izard, emotions may be classified as positive (interest, happiness), negative (fear, loathing, distress, contempt, guilt) and neutral (surprise). Fine distinctions are subjective in natureAC/Eand may escape rigid classification. In fact, there are those who assert that the Internet and online communication are bringing with them new emotions—or rather new ways of experiencing established emotions—such as the worry experienced when someone fails to answer an e‐ mail, infuriation at being disconnected, the tenseness caused by sitting all day at the computer, etc.The worlds of art and culture are highly familiar with the emotions: those they can arouse, those that they can transmit. In spite of the fact that, as we were saying, the issue of human emotions has been the object of study by philosophers from the ancient Greeks until our own day, it was not until the end of the 20th century that it emerged as a fundamental, open, element of human knowledge. So‐called “emotional intelligence” (about which the appropriate warnings are now issued about education and the control of these emotions, given that such control may be translated into an opportunity for manipulation) opened up a field in which to cultivate all manner of values in education, personality, work, etc., in relation to the emotions. The neo‐classical man’s hiding of the emotions has given way to the demonstration of the most violent emotions and passions, together with the go‐with‐ the‐flowattitude of twent ieth‐ century man to today, the era of knowledge, educat ion and control of the emotions.Some of the new technologies that are appearing have affective, and sometimes sensorial, aspectsBut how is it that technology establishes relations with humans? Undoubtedly this relationship may exist on different planes, as I suggested at the beginning. Man, in his search for knowledge of his own nature, and the will to overcome it, has developed the idea of the “other” like himself, the Doppelgänger, also in various forms and representations. It is this conception of the double that the emotions have been evolving together withWHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 9: THE NEW AFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES COME TO THE CULTURAL SECTOR CURRENT PAGE...110