Emotion-chart

The narrative of the video piece is based on a chart I created in response to my research into attachment theory. The chart depicts a fictitious cycle of how a period of dating may be experienced by individuals who are identified as ‘attachment-anxious’. This applies to people whose quest for love may be hindered by fear of rejection and abandonment. The chart is divided into two halves: cathecting/decathecting (the process of investing or withdrawing emotional energy in a person, idea or object), and subdivided further into 11 chapters using 11 metonyms :

Loneliness is the inability to relate to the world
Excitement is the disruption of organised mass
Vulnerability is open
Desire is an unanswered glimpse
Anticipation is magnified space
Control is a possession
Fear is cold
Disappointment is absence
Desperation is infected energy
Sadness is down
Loss is a full stop

With the exception of ‘Control is a possession’(1) and ‘Fear is cold’(2), all other chapters/
metonyms are devised concepts I based on personal associations and mental imagery.

1 Gibbs Jr. W. R and O’Brien, J. (1990). Idioms and Mental Imagery: The Metaphorical Motivation for Idiomatic
Meaning. In Altmann, G. (ed.), Cognition 36, 35-68. Elsevier
2 Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

you said you'd call

silk and cotton voile cuff, digital print, Multi Head embroidery

Unfortunately I had to part with my cuff as it was in fact stolen from an exhibition space. Who knows, you may see it round. Let us remember it comme ça..
in memory x

Excitement is the disruption of organised mass.

Je crois que je sais rien.

GO MISSING STAY

Control is a Possession

In their 1990 experiment Gibbs Jr. and O’Brien ‘Idioms and mental imagery’ subjects
were given a list of five different idioms in five different ‘emotion-categories’: Anger,
Authority, Secretiveness, Insanity and Revelation. An example for an anger idiom would
be ‘hit the ceiling’ and ‘spill the beans’ for revelation. For each idioms subjects were then
asked to comment in regards to the mental imagery, reversibility, intentionality, manner,causation and whether they value the statement as positive or negative for each idiom. They summarized the results (together with results from previous experiments, largely based on Lakoff & Johnson, later Koevecses) as follows:

IDEAS ARE PHYSICAL ENTITIES
THE MIND IS A CONTAINER, THE MIND IS A BRITTLE OBJECT
ANGER IS HEAT, ANGER IS A HOT FLUID (IN A CONTAINER)
CONTROL IS A POSSESSION, CONTROL IS AN INVISIBLE FORCE
INSANITY IS AN INVISIBLE FORCE


- Gibbs Jr. W. R. and O’Brien J. (1990). Idioms and mental Imagery: The Metaphorical
Motivation for Idiomatic Meaning. In: Altmann, G. (ed.), Cognition 36,
35-68. Elsevier
- Kövecses, Z. (2003). Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture, and Body in Human
Feeling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Lakoff, G., and Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press