The AFFECTIONALYzER
Year:
2026
Medium:
Interactive Device,
Immersive InstallationÂ
Concept and Lead Artist: Iris Wong
Technical Lead:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Anoop Sinha
UI Interaction:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Anna KuangÂ
Prototype Development: Aung Nyein Chan Â
What if the ambiguity we feel in relationships were a medical condition that can be quantified, eliminated and treated?
Demo
The Affectionalyzer is a fictional device that translates the complexity of human attachment into one certain number: a clinically legible Mutual Affection Index. At the start of the test, participants are required to put on EEG headsets, which would reflect their brain activity in real time (though no such data is recorded/documented). They are then required to look each other in the eye while the affection index is being calculated. The index is generated through a deliberately opaque process. The Affectionalyzer then diagnoses participants' relational conditions and prescribes a course of treatment. Disagreement with the diagnosis is framed as a common side effect, and should not interpreted as evidence of diagnostic inaccuracy. Patients are advised to continue treatment as prescribed. Â
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The Affectionalyzer asks what happens when uncertainty itself becomes something that can be measured and diagnosed. What do we gain and lose, when we surrender ambiguity to scientific and technological authority? If a machine's judgment conflicts with our own feelings, which ones do we trust? Its interactive nature also explores how the act of measuring a relationship alone can trigger new relational or social behaviour.Â
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Gallery
