Mining The Web’s Emotions

I came across this superb video recently. It’s a TED lecture given by Jonathan Harris, a computer scientist and artist based in Brooklyn, USA.
He talks about his project “We Feel Fine” which exquisitely uses technology to mine the world’s blogs collecting snapshots of the bloggers’ feelings and collectively the web’s emotions.

He also introduces his newer project “Universe” which turns current events into constellations of words.

Both projects illustrate that our differences – be they cultural, monetary, political, sexual or geographical – are actually not so diverse as we share the same feelings, issues, concerns, doubts or celebrations.

“We Feel Fine” is not only triumphant in consolidating the web’s emotions via unfiltered and passively observed content, but it also contains beautiful interfaces that translate chaos into coherence.

Enjoy…