Emotion simulator

The MIFF Emotion Simulator will allow Melburnians to physically experience the emotions of a MIFF film, before they see it.

 This artistically-lead scientific experiment is a custom-built movie chair that sees the face of willing participants electro-stimulated to demonstrate the way a movie will make someone feel, before the choose to see it. 

Participants will have 12 electrodes placed on the various major muscles of the face, allowing the simulation of happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger, and surprise. Participants can then choose which films from this year’s Festival they’d like to experience. In this way a two-hour film is concentrated into a minute-long experience unlike any other.

A chair-mounted camera films each session creating one-off film clips that can be shared via social media throughout the Festival’s duration, by MIFF itself as well as the participants. These provide a unique facial movie preview for the people of Melbourne to watch to determine what sort of film they wish to watch from the over 370 on offer at this year’s MIFF.