Shades of Corona

Revisualizing Coronavirus with different emotions

An experiment to recreate coronavirus to evoke different emotions.

#coronavirus #medicalillustration #communication #emotions #experiment #openprocessing

Year

2020 | Personal Project

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the emotional landscape of our society right now. We all had our own experiences, positive and negative through these months of lockdown. One striking visual that has impacted people, is the image of Coronavirus created by Alissa Eckert, a medical illustrator at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with her colleague Dan Higgins. This colorful 3D rendering of a spiky fuzzball has spread around the world at least as fast as the coronavirus.

This image of coronavirus is actually designed keeping the public in mind. Medical illustrations like this show how artists can help make the terrifying world around us feel more comprehensible by giving things a visual form.

This ‘beauty shot’ of coronavirus is a work of visual communication with a goal to convey an attitude as well as information. The image here reveals the construction of the virus which consists of different kinds of proteins and genetic material. The 3D rendering of the novel coronavirus is not what would appear if you could see the virus with your own eyes. So, more than scientific accuracy it is designed to evoke emotions.

The form, shadows, colors, etc. are designed to communicate two ideas:1) the seriousness of the virus and 2) the lucidity/hope that everything can be mapped and figured out. This is how Alissa hit the sweet spot in the scale of drama.

I build this sketch of coronavirus in p5.js to revisualize it as an experiment.

Corona Variations Normal Editor screen c

View the sketch on openprocessing.org here

Can we recreate this coronavirus sketch to elicit other emotions also?

Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions

In 1980, Robert Plutchik diagrammed a wheel of eight emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and anticipation, inspired by his Ten Postulates.

Each primary emotion has a polar opposite, so that: Joy is the opposite of Sadness Fear is the opposite of Anger Anticipation is the opposite of Surprise Disgust is the opposite of Trust .

Plutchik also theorized twenty-four "Primary", "Secondary", and "Tertiary" dyads.

1. Anger + Anticipation = Aggressiveness

2. Anticipation + Joy = Optimism

3. Joy + Trust = Love

4. Trust + Fear = Submission

5. Fear + Surprise = Alarm
6. Surprise + Sadness = Disappointment

7. Sadness + Disgust = Remorse

8. Disgust + Anger = Contempt

9. Anger + Joy = Pride

10. Anticipation + Trust = Fatalism

11. Joy + Fear = Guilt

12. Trust + Surprise = Curiosity

13. Fear + Sadness = Despair

14. Surprise + Disgust = Unbelief

15. Sadness + Anger = Envy

16. Disgust + Anticipation = Cynicism

17. Anger + Trust = Dominance

18. Anticipation + Fear = Anxiety

19. Joy + Surprise = Delight

20. Trust + Sadness = Sentimentality

21. Fear + Disgust = Shame

22. Surprise + Anger = Outrage

23. Sadness + Anticipation = Pessimism

24. Disgust + Joy = Morbidness

The Process

Corona Emotion making Process editor scr

Corona x Emotions extras edited arranged

Result

8 Primary emotions

Dyads (Combinations)

Love = Joy + Trust

Shock = Surprise + Disgust

Shame = Fear + Disgust

Pride = Anger + Joy

View the entire collection here

To be continued.....

There are many other factors like color, material, texture, lighting, focus, and composition that play a key role in making an image emotive. Although this experiment is limited to the only some factors like form and proportion it gives us a peek into how the emotions are interconnected and forms a pattern. It also evinces our ability to identify emotions in inanimate objects like coronavirus.