Author: Jonathan

Jonathan Cook is a researcher of commercial culture, specializing in immersive interviews designed to uncover the emotions, symbols, stories and rituals that drive our behavior in unexpected directions.
indifferent

Indifferent

Indifference can, in certain contexts, reflect a true lack of emotion. When a person has never had a reason to care about something or someone, it’s not at all unusual for them to… more emotion Indifferent

wigged out

Wigged Out

You’re a stable, sensible person… except when something unexpected drives you beyond reason. You have perfect self-control, until you’re wigged out. When you’re wigged out, you just can’t handle things any more. You’re… more emotion Wigged Out

Dante Divine Comedy lost

Lost

The poet David Whyte translates the opening lines of Dante’s Divine Comedy as follows: “In the middle of the road of life I awoke in a dark wood where the true way was… more emotion Lost

pleasure amid ruin

Ruinenlust

What is architecture but the provider of safe, warm boxes in which to live and work? Modernist architects provided us with clean, simple buildings that, although they are functionally adequate, are emotionally dead…. more emotion Ruinenlust

sailboat hwyl

Hwyl

Imagine yourself on deck on a sailboat, on a day when the gusts propel you forward at an eager pace, with the wind whipping through your hair, feeling not seasick but at one… more emotion Hwyl

JOMO

Jomo

Fomo is the apprehension that there is something wonderful going on somewhere that you could be doing, if only you weren’t where you are now. What if that apprehension could be replaced with… more emotion Jomo

engentado

Engentado

Engentado is the feeling that happens before jomo, after an unwise fomo. It’s the emotion of being confined by the presence of people all around you, desperate to find some way to escape,… more emotion Engentado

fomo

Fomo

Fomo began as a shortening for fear of missing out, but it isn’t really a fear. There’s no terror to it at all. It’s not a nervous anticipation that something is going to… more emotion Fomo

Mamihlapinatapai

Mamihlapinatapai

Two people stand at the end of a dock at the edge of a lake. It is late spring, and they have arrived at this body of water, a destination they have traveled… more emotion Mamihlapinatapai

Regret Maud Muller

Regret

People are fond of saying that they have no regrets, but when Frank Sinatra sang that he had too few regrets to mention, it sounded more like a boast from an unreflective mind… more emotion Regret