Courting emotional contagion: Tina Gonsalves' Chameleon

This paper engages with the recent computer-mediated video installations of Australian media artist Tina Gonsalves. Gonsalves' interactive video Chameleon (2008-2010) explores the scientific notion of 'emotional contagion', the dynamics of how emotions spread from one person to another in social contexts. An ambitious work at the interface of media art, neuroscience and advanced 'affective computing' being developed at the MIT Media Lab, Chameleon interprets the notion of empathy as a kind of code that can be simulated in an installation context. The work continues and expands upon the artist's interest in the intimacies and vulnerabilities of human emotions. It is a genuinely interdisciplinary work that breaks new ground in terms of the dialogue between art, science and technology.