Signs, reasons, emotions: a Vygotskian perspective
Kyrill Potapov (UCL)  

5.30-7.15 pm
 
The dominant view in fields like affective computing is that emotions are innate internal states with distinct physiological markers. This discounts the development and meaning of emotions. Following Lev Vygotsky, I propose an alternative framework. Emotions cannot be reduced to individual physiology because they extend beyond the individual and are structured by social practice. Emotions allow us to orient our environment, but human environments have affordances constituted through learning, play, and everyday interaction. Objects can embody our motives and practices as signs. Signs can interrupt the closure our sensorimotor functions form with the environment, restructuring the whole dynamic system.
 
Kyrill Potapov spent twelve years as a secondary school English teacher. He is currently a PhD student in Human-Computer Interaction at the UCL Interaction Centre. His thesis focuses on how teens interpret data they collect about their own lives. He is also a research associate on two projects: the first, exploring how video games influence teens’ emotions; the second, exploring a technology which uses music to support the movement of people with chronic pain.
 
A paper is attached here.
For further inquiries: Yuxin Su (yuxin.su.16@ucl.ac.uk).
 
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