The EMO-Synth project is an innovative, interactive multimedia project in which the emotional impact of automatically generated sound and image on the viewers is maximised by means of artificial intelligence.

At the very heart of the project lies the EMO-Synth, a soft and hardware system in which the emotional man-machine interaction plays a central role.

By using the EMO-Synth, the system automatically generates and manipulates sound and image to bring the user in certain predefined emotional states. For this purpose, emotions are measured using biosensors that register various psycho-physiological parameters such as heart rate and stress level.

The development of the EMO-Synth relies on a broad range of artistic and scientific disciplines including affective computing, artificial intelligence, psychophysiology, advanced mathematical and statistical modelling and algorithmic music composition and image generation.

The realisation of the project was supported by the Flemish Audiovisual Fund  (www.vaf.be), Flanders Image (www.flandersimage.org) and the Centre for Digital Cultures and Technologies (iMAL, www.imal.org).

EMO-Synth performances and showcases could be seen at various locations and venues including TEDxFlanders (Antwerp, Be), Technical Museum of Zagreb (Zagreb, Hr), Institute for Advanced Studies (IMT,  Lucca, It), Culturgest (Lissabon, Pt), Liebig 12 Gallery (Berlin, De), M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Be), Atomium (Brussel, Be), BOZAR (Brussels, Be), Logos Foundation (Ghent, Be), iMAL (Center for Digital Cultures & Technologies, Brussels, Be), Art Cinema OFFoff (Ghent, Be), Happy New Ears Festival (Courtray, Be), Pecha Kucha (Brussels, Be), DORKBOT (Ghent, Be), art fare Lineart (Ghent, Be), Galerie Tatjana Pieters (Ghent, Be), Croxhapox (Ghent, Be), L.A.C. (Lieu d’Art Contemporain, Narbonne, Fr), Gonzo Circus magazine on belgian (national) television (KETNET, TV Brussel) and national radio stations Studio Brussel, Radio 1 and Radio 2.

Links for this project:

Publications:

• Detailed project description of EMO-Synth:
  Vermeulen, V.  (2012)  The EMO-Synth, an emotion driven music generator.
  In: eContact 14.2! Biotechnological Performance Practice.
  Link: http://econtact.ca/14_2/vermeulen_emosynth.html
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• Publication on art/science background of EMO-Synth project:
  Vermeulen, V.  (2014)  Affective computing and psychophysiology as new ways for interactive music compositions and performance. In eContact! 16.3.
  Link: http://econtact.ca/16_3/vermeulen_affectivecomputing.html
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• Publication on EMO-Synth in popular Dutch science magazine EOS:
  Huylebrouck, D.  (2014)  Muziek op maat (in Dutch).
  In EOS, issue april 2014.
  Link: http://eoswetenschap.eu/content/eos-april-2014
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• EMO-Synth performance and presentation at the Generative Art Conference 2012:
  Vermeulen, V.  (2012)  The EMO-Synth, an intelligent music and image generator driven by human emotion.
  Link: http://www.generativeart.com/GA2012/valery.pdf

Video’s: