Typology of Emotion Assemblages in Art and Science

Abstract The paper is a cross disciplinary exploration that analyzes how artists and scientists use emotion as a methodological tool to study participants and co-create projects. It uses a Science and Technology Studies and New Materialist approach to identify a typology of five assemblages of how emotions are used as a methodological tool across the arts and sciences. The typology is visualized as diagrams that highlight the various material, social and cultural components that make the assemblages operate. The paper suggests that these assemblages create radically different potentials for including cultural and environmental context, the role of participants and artist/researcher reflexivity. It argues that there is an imperative for artists, designers and researchers to make deliberate choices as to who or what to include and exclude when working with emotion.