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.
far away

Distant

Today, I am driving to the end of the northernmost paved road in all of Canada. It reaches all the way up to the side of St. James Bay, the dramatic dimple dipping… more emotion Distant

sad many feelings

Sad

Companies selling Emotion AI services try to convince potential clients that there are just a handful of basic emotions that are so easy to understand and measure that they can be identified and… more emotion Sad

earth emotions

Topoaversion

It has become a common request in the course of a discussion to say, “Please, let’s not go there.” It’s a way of indicating that we would rather not visit an uncomfortable topic… more emotion Topoaversion

mourning climate change loss

Climate Grief

This week, I’m describing emotions that are specific to the ecological crisis of climate change that’s become a clear, present reality all over the globe. The emotional impact of climate change has become… more emotion Climate Grief

Drought Solastalgia

Solastalgia

What with the recent Emotional Granularity entries of flygskam and biophilia, I seem to be in a pattern of describing emotions that are ecologically related. I’ll make the pattern a trend, then, and… more emotion Solastalgia

flying shame

Flygskam

If you’re told that something is “a crying shame”, the tone is a bit dismissive, as if to say that yes, things are bad, but that nothing can be done about it. The… more emotion Flygskam

ant love of living things

Biophilia

One of the fundamental flaws of the Emotion AI products being developed by companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google is that their automated algorithms decontextualize human feelings. Scanning our faces or measuring our… more emotion Biophilia

Technology mimics humanity

The Uncanny Valley

In 1970, the robotics professor Masahiro Mori articulated the feeling of the uncanny valley, an emotional reaction against unsentient objects that have been designed to mimic human beings. While people can feel quite… more emotion The Uncanny Valley

Lindsey Graham high dudgeon

Dudgeon

Dudgeon is an emotion of personal affront that is felt to such an extent that it is impossible to restrain from displays that are clearly intended to communicate the feeling. One difference between… more emotion Dudgeon

Ilinx Emotion vortex

Ilinx

To feel the emotion of ilinx is to experience a kind of temporary turbulence that provokes a disorientation reaching down to the very core of our sense of self in the world. Is… more emotion Ilinx