Interview about Emotion Protocol Kinetic Installation, winner of the A' Interactive, Experiential and Immersive Design Installations Award 2025
Emotion Protocol is a kinetic installation that features multiple four-faced Buddha heads mounted on rotating mechanisms. Each head, inspired by traditional Buddhist statuary, is equipped with a motor that allows it to rotate in a programmed pattern. The synchronized movement of the heads produces a dynamic visual display, highlighting the contrast between traditional forms and modern mechanics.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsThe concept for Emotion Protocol emerged from my deep interest in the Buddhist four-faced statues that traditionally embody different aspects of human emotion and wisdom. I was struck by how these ancient forms acknowledged the complexity and multiplicity of feeling at a time when modern society often demands emotional uniformity. Simultaneously, I was reflecting on how technology shapes behavior, often reducing us to predictable patterns through algorithms, social expectations, and surveillance. In my creative process, I wanted to highlight this clash: the wisdom of accepting emotional plurality versus the technological impulse to regulate and standardize. The mechanical rotation of the heads makes visible this tension, as their serene faces are exposed and concealed in a strict, programmed choreography. This intersection of ancient iconography and mechanized motion became a way to critique contemporary emotional repression while honoring the philosophical depth of Buddhist representations of human feeling.
The decision to use mechanical rotation came from observing how social norms, particularly in Eastern cultures, often demand that individuals carefully manage which emotions are visible. Like a rotating statue revealing one face at a time, people learn to present only socially acceptable expressions while concealing others. Mechanization became a perfect metaphor for this training—repetitive, precise, and impersonal. By synchronizing multiple heads, I wanted to evoke a kind of choreographed conformity, suggesting that such emotional regulation is not an individual act but a collective social system. The motors’ relentless, algorithmic movement also serves as a critique of how technology can amplify these pressures: social media algorithms favor certain emotions over others, encouraging performative positivity or outrage while marginalizing complexity. The installation uses this mechanical logic to expose the absurdity and tragedy of reducing human emotional life to predictable, programmable behaviors.
Balancing engineering precision with spiritual resonance was one of the project's greatest challenges. Technically, controlling 16 stepper motors required custom PCB design to manage power distribution while ensuring exact movement coordination. I collaborated with electrical engineers to develop boards that could handle complex timing signals without introducing jitter or lag that would disrupt the choreography. But I also wanted to avoid a purely sterile result; too-perfect synchronization risked making the installation feel lifeless. I deliberately programmed subtle variations in timing and acceleration to mimic the small human hesitations you might see in ritual movement.
I chose the 4x4 array as a deliberate metaphor for human society—each Buddha head representing an individual forced into proximity with others. The overall height was carefully set so viewers could look down upon the entire grid, observing the collective arrangement while still clearly seeing individual faces. This vantage point was meant to evoke both power and vulnerability: the ability to survey the whole while recognizing the uniqueness within. I also designed the spacing between the heads to be intentionally tight, creating a sense of density—even crowding—that mirrors urban life and social environments where emotional expression is constantly negotiated in public view. The closeness ensures you cannot avoid seeing others, suggesting that our identities and emotions are always shaped in relation to those around us. This physical compression was key to achieving an emotional impact that feels intimate, uncomfortable, and inescapably communal, forcing the viewer to reflect on the tension between personal feeling and collective conformity.
My background in Interior Design gave me a deep understanding of material properties and their emotional impact, which was crucial in shaping this installation. I learned how materials can evoke specific moods and how meticulous detailing can transform an abstract concept into a tangible, coherent experience. For this installation, I chose semi-transparent acrylic for the base precisely because it reveals the hidden network of wires and power supplies beneath the serene Buddha heads. This layered visibility creates a subtle tension, suggesting the complexity and messiness beneath the surface of controlled emotional expression. The interwoven lines of circuitry evoke the entanglement of social expectations and personal feelings. Meanwhile, the white resin Buddha heads were chosen to communicate a calm, contemplative atmosphere, referencing traditional statuary while feeling contemporary and minimal. My interior design training allowed me to balance these material contrasts—transparent versus opaque, industrial versus sacred—so that the entire piece speaks to the uneasy coexistence of inner emotional complexity and outward composure in modern life.
Designing the motion patterns required me to think deeply about how programming can either flatten or reveal emotional nuance. I didn’t want the rotation to be purely mechanical or repetitive in a mindless sense; I wanted it to evoke the feeling of suppressed emotion struggling to surface. The algorithm introduces programmed pauses, variations in rotation speed, and asynchronous shifts between rows, creating moments where the heads appear to "hesitate" or "resist" their programmed path. These micro-variations mirror the human experience of managing conflicting feelings in social situations. I also deliberately programmed cycles where all heads align perfectly before breaking back into staggered rhythms, to symbolize moments of enforced conformity followed by private divergence. This pattern was meant to act as a meditation on the tension between societal expectation and authentic emotion, with the code itself becoming a metaphor for how emotional behavior is taught, learned, and enforced.
Winning the Iron A' Design Award has given Emotion Protocol a wider platform to demonstrate that traditional cultural symbols can be reimagined in ways that remain respectful yet critical. It shows that contemporary installation art can do more than preserve cultural heritage—it can interrogate it, reveal its ongoing relevance, and challenge viewers to consider their own participation in inherited practices. The award has sparked conversations with curators, designers, and fellow artists about how technology isn’t inherently opposed to tradition but can be a tool for deepening engagement.
Emotion Protocol is deeply personal because it emerges from my own struggle with the cultural expectation to manage, suppress, or selectively express emotions. Growing up, I internalized the belief that emotional restraint was a virtue, yet I also felt the cost of this suppression in my relationships and sense of self. The installation externalizes that internal conflict: the Buddha heads’ serene expressions and rigid choreography symbolize the mask of composure demanded by society. But the slight variations in movement, the subtle asynchronous rotations, suggest the emotions that refuse to be fully contained. Creating this piece was a way of confronting my own learned behaviors—examining how much of my emotional life has been programmed by culture, family, and even my own fears. By making this conflict visible and physical, I hoped to open a space not just for my own reconciliation but for others to recognize and question the emotional protocols they have inherited.
When selecting materials for Emotion Protocol, I wanted to create a deliberate tension between traditional Buddhist iconography and contemporary industrial fabrication. The white 3D-printed resin Buddha heads were chosen for their ability to convey a serene, meditative atmosphere, evoking the calm of traditional statuary while also feeling starkly modern and almost clinical in their precision. This material allowed me to achieve highly detailed forms but with an intentionally uniform, manufactured appearance, questioning how spiritual symbols are reproduced and consumed today.For the base, I used CNC-milled semi-transparent acrylic specifically to reveal the normally hidden wiring and power supplies beneath the heads. This choice was critical to the conceptual message: it exposes the mechanical infrastructure that animates the calm faces above, serving as a metaphor for the unseen social and technological systems that regulate emotional expression. The intersecting lines of cables visible through the acrylic evoke a sense of entanglement and complexity, contrasting with the apparent simplicity of the serene faces. By choosing these contemporary materials and fabrication methods, I wanted to highlight the uneasy coexistence of spiritual tradition and modern mechanization, inviting viewers to reflect on how even sacred symbols can be reframed, commodified, and controlled by contemporary technologies.
Looking ahead, I see Emotion Protocol as an invitation to explore how collective cultural values, especially those emphasizing emotional restraint, can shape and even alienate individuals. The mechanical rotation and programmed patterns are not celebrating technology itself but using it as a metaphor for the pressures of collectivism in Eastern societies. I hope this work encourages future artists to examine how cultural expectations of harmony and self-control can suppress authentic emotional expression, leading to a subtle form of alienation. By making these patterns visible and unavoidable in an immersive installation, Emotion Protocol seeks to open conversations about how deeply these social protocols shape us. I envision future works expanding on this idea—questioning not just technological systems, but the cultural systems that teach us to regulate, hide, or sacrifice our true feelings for collective ideals.
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