The MIT Mood Meter is designed to assess the mood at key points around the MIT campus, smiles are used as a barometer for happiness and is used to "raise awareness of how our own smiles can positively affect the surrounding environment".
Real-time information is produced and can be used to help answer questions about the mood of students on Campus and is viewable on the project web site MIT Mood Meter.

I really like this concept as it is casting votes through mood and seems to be a very real way to analyse and improve factors around campus that may be preventing good moods.

Happiness Machine from Leo Koppel on Vimeo.

This cartoon reminds me of a poem I studied in high school:

Solitude (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain

In essence both of these works deal with the fact that you are only appealing to others while you are happy (because it is a thing of worth)!!!
I think the idea that a smile has value and worth is very interesting as that would classify it as a commodity with very little stretching of the imagination; this would mean that a smile is trade-able and is in sort some form of currency that is necessary to get the things we want out of life.

Women smiling...

When I first talked about my smiling experiment with others I had a lot of curiosity in the response I received. One factor that seemed to come up in these discussions was gender, and how as a female smiling indiscriminately at people I passed, for it to be seen as a sexual advance.The number of applications for a smile are vast and I hadn't considered this to be the case except for one factor, the sustained eye contact until the withdrawal of the other person. This is overt behaviour and I can see the potential for someone to think there is intention beyond this type of contact.

It was pointed out to me that while acceptable in this country my behaviour would not be tolerated everywhere in the world. I found while researching that it is a major Islamic sin (Al-Kaba'ir) for a women to smile at 'strange men' and it is highly punishable in the afterlife! The following is a 'Hadith about Women'... found here


" I am recalling a moment when I went for me'raj and I ascended the heavens, on that particular night I found six categories of the women of my ummat being subjected to such form of torment that every time I think about that azaab it makes me cry, he then started to explain...

I saw a women hung by her hair suspended in the depth of jahannam, her brains were boiling. Then I saw a women hung by her tongue, and the water of jahannam was being poured down her throat. Then I saw a women hung by the upper portion of her chest. Then I saw a women, her legs were tied to her chest and her hands were tied to her forehead. Then I saw one women, she was disfigured, she had the head of a swine and the body of a donkey, snakes were surrounding her. Then I saw a women in the form of a dog, and the angels were striking her.

What were the crimes of these women that they were subjected to such forms of azaab?

With regards to the woman who was hung by her hair, she walked outside freely, exposing and revealing her hair to strange men. The one who was hung by her tongue, she used to verbally abuse her husband. The woman who was hung by the upper portion of her chest, she was an immoral women, an unchaste women smiling with strange men. The woman whose legs were tied to her chest and her hands tied to her forehead, this women was very negligent with the aspects of purity, when it came to the period after her menstrual cycle, she had to purify herself so she could pray her salaah. And with regards to that woman who was disfigured, she was one who carried tales and used to lie openly. Finally the woman who was in the form of a dog, she was one who constantly reminded others about her favours and her heart is full of jealousy."

This view is so different from the climate that we live in really shows how differently things can be interpreted in different contexts and/ or cultures... I think that the application of smiles definately has the scope to be explored/ exploited in my Happiness Machine project.

Cheese

This video installation entitled 'Cheese' is a "experiment in the architecture of sincerity". Female actresses are asked to smile at a camera for an hour and a half, having their expressions constantly analysed for sincerity... If the actress does not display a large enough smile to satisfy the software an alarm begins to sound, and will continue to sound until a satisfactory smile is once again plastered across her face.
This work deals with forced friendliness and the 'work' that appearing happy at all times involves.
I like the subject matter of this piece as we can all relate to being expected at times to appear friendly when we are feeling the exact opposite... It also seems that by using all female actresses Moeller is suggesting that females with their often empathetic nature are easily exploited into appearing happy for the sake of others. The installation is quite blatant and after watching the women for only a short time we can see the discomfort that they are in while trying to conform to their instructions.
I do not however like the gallery setup that shows all this footage simultaneously... it is overwhelming and makes it easier to miss the all the emotional signifiers that are occurring on the women's faces.

I think that this work is very strong and deals with happiness from a unique perspective, that the appearance of happiness is sometimes false and for the benefit of others...Ultimately that it may be more detrimental than good!

Can we spot fake smiles???

I found an interesting quizz that tested the users ability to distinguish between real and fake smiles on the BBC Website. 

I scored a 17/20 on deciding if a smile was genuine or fake from short video clips played once only.

"Most people are surprisingly bad at spotting fake smiles. One possible explanation for this is that it may be easier for people to get along if they don't always know what others are really feeling.
Although fake smiles often look very similar to genuine smiles, they are actually slightly different, because they are brought about by different muscles, which are controlled by different parts of the brain.
Fake smiles can be performed at will, because the brain signals that create them come from the conscious part of the brain and prompt the zygomaticus major muscles in the cheeks to contract. These are the muscles that pull the corners of the mouth outwards.
Genuine smiles, on the other hand, are generated by the unconscious brain, so are automatic. When people feel pleasure, signals pass through the part of the brain that processes emotion. As well as making the mouth muscles move, the muscles that raise the cheeks – the orbicularis oculi and the pars orbitalis – also contract, making the eyes crease up, and the eyebrows dip slightly.
Lines around the eyes do sometimes appear in intense fake smiles, and the cheeks may bunch up, making it look as if the eyes are contracting and the smile is genuine. But there are a few key signs that distinguish these smiles from real ones. For example, when a smile is genuine, the eye cover fold - the fleshy part of the eye between the eyebrow and the eyelid - moves downwards and the end of the eyebrows dip slightly.
Scientists distinguish between genuine and fake smiles by using a coding system called the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which was devised by Professor Paul Ekman of the University of California and Dr Wallace V. Friesen of the University of Kentucky." - bbc.co.uk

I found this very interesting and it has made me think about the difference between real and fake smiles and what the application for fake smiles might be...
Are fake smiles deceptive and therefore less valid than real smiles or are they just a useful tool to have in one's repertoire that will make someone else happy without you actually having to change your mood if you are not inclined to?

Smiles Experiment

I have had quite a bit of trouble starting the 'Happiness Machine' project... So I finally started with a simple social experiment. I spent one morning on the trip between my home and University (roughly one and a half hours) smiling at every person that I made eye contact with. This felt somewhere between normal and creepy for me, I am used to smiling at people but sustaining this is actually quite an exposing and personal experience...

There was an undeniable trend in the reactions from the individuals I engaged with a smile... Smiling and then instantly looking away.

This would suggest to me that smiling is a rather instinctual response, I had once heard that people are naturally quite empathetic and that expressions and emotions are often mirrored back at whom they originate from. This would explain the instinctual smile back and then upon recognising their lack to familiarity with me as an individual the aversion so they would not be obligated into making any further contact with me.

I guess that often when a stranger makes contact with you in this way they want something from you and this suspicion is therefore justified although I couldn't be sure that this is the common psyche.

Upgrade to Website

For the beginning project of the year all of the second year students have been instructed to upgrade to  a portfolio website in semester 1. Therefore this blog is temporary and will later migrate to my very own website. In the meantime however it will be used to convey my project ideas and updates etc. to help me examine and refine my ideas