moodring — a digital artifact

developing a way to stay connected/present while living far apart

https://abhinav-made.github.io/moodring/

When people are apart, they always try to find ways to be together. When people are together, they have this capacity to quietly enjoy one another's company — even when they have much too much to do.

Considering that when we are working, our displays are always on, our displays have the potential to influence one another's physical spaces; they already affect the lighting and colours of the space that they sit in, so why not utilize it with intention? Here, this site, or ‘digital artifact’, allows two users to intuitively use their keys/keyboards as a way to indicate their moods to one another by changing the colours of our displays. Both users indicate their moods at the same time by respectively changing the respective sides of this shared interface. With that, the interface displays both users' moods in real time. More importantly: both users' moods now affect the ambient lighting and colours of either users' spaces -- wherever in the world they may be. This shared 'gradient of feelings' is more than just a beautiful gradient; it is a system that lets users employ their senses to feel one another's presence in their respective physical spaces; to know when one another is happy, sad, stressed, etc. -- and if users achieve a solid colour, they know that their moods are completely in sync in that moment.

More, these moments may be logged; users may refer to a log of this 'gradient of feelings' whenever they desire, and to essentially create a beautiful artifact of their moods with the element of time — truly, a 'shared mood-space'.

This exploration was inspired by 'mood rings' that were ubiquitous for kids of the '90s.