Encoding Emotions

This contribution explores the technologies of Affective Computing and Emotional Artificial Intelligence as virtual semantics. To this end, it employs a media-archaeological approach to Umberto Eco’s concept of “code,” applying it to shared and technologically processed emotions and affects. A media-archaeological concept of code, grounded in virtual semantics, elucidates the specific relationship between the syntax of a code system and the construction of meaning. By drawing on the historically changing forms of encoding emotions—such as the love letter and the data flow in Affective Computing and AI—the article highlights the normative consequences of these virtual semantics.