Emotions as an Ingredient
Notes from the author Katherine Oktober Matthews
It is first necessary to recognize an uncomfortable truth: despite the fact that we all experience emotions on a daily, if not moment-to-moment basis, they are ultimately mysterious to us. Over time, theorists and researchers have struggled to agree on a unifying definition of emotions, because at best, what we can recognize is that the phenomenon of emotions comprises a cluster of experiences. It can be difficult to disentangle the physiological from the emotional. For example, could all of us agree conclusively that love is an emotion and lust is a physical reaction, or would we find disagreement, not just because of the idiosyncrasies of language but because of variety in our phenomenological experiences? Put another way, we like to speak about what happens in the body, the mind, and the heart as different things, but these delineations seem to be more useful as metaphor than actual categories.
Moreover, we have no guarantee that different people experience emotions in the same way or to the same intensity. We know for example that sociopaths feel less shame than others. We know that there are gender differences in the experience of pain. What other emotional differences are there between us that still fall within the realm of a shared language of emotions? Furthermore, the pathways between emotions contribute to our individuality. For one person, the path between love and sadness is well worn, while for another it’s love and fury, and still another it’s love and harmony. The depth of those pathways may define a certain “truth” to the way emotional combinations feel, making some combinations feel more natural, more correct.
As humans, we often think of emotions as things that happen to us, rather than something which arises in us, shaped by our inner stasis. Our mood affects our reactions, as well as our temperament, what we observe and give our attention to, our environments and various biological factors like gut bacteria and states like sleepiness and hunger. Through meditation, we can cultivate a “watcher” who observes these changes with playful curiosity rather than attachment. It is because of my relationship with my own “watcher” that I first cultivated the idea of sculpting emotion toward an artistic purpose.
Like tasting a complex wine, we can savor an emotional experience, and swirl it round to discern its composition: a base of love, a touch of fear, hints of contempt.
Emotion as an aesthetic experience can be complex and rich, it can be strong and simple. It can leave us feeling deeply conflicted. Each of those experiences can tell us something not just about what gave us the experience, but something about ourselves.
When we can revel in the experience of complex emotional states, we can start to appreciate them as constructions. We can appreciate them as being composed from component parts — in other words, ingredients.
From there, we can get cooking. Even making delicacies.
Creators seek to evoke an emotional response in their viewers. Some are methodical in this while others far more intuitive, focusing mainly on the act of creation rather than the outcome. Putting differences like these aside, the Emotion Mixer is a tool that helps illuminate the properties of emotions.
The Emotion Mixer has been a years-long project of mine. It offered a magnificent challenge that is ultimately as much about emotion as is it about language (and its limitations). Each language has its own understanding of emotions, and surely each language has its blind spots and gaps. Through the struggle of making the Emotion Mixer, I was made aware of many limitations of the English language. Some words are so overrun with cultural baggage that they can’t be used handily without referring to other meanings; other emotional experiences seemed to lack a wholly accurate descriptor. The result is nevertheless complex and satisfying. When put to use together with your own instincts, experiences, and emotional awareness, I think you will find it a comprehensive and robust instrument of emotion.