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I came across two main issues with my current proposal for the Email Behavior Change project for Persuasive Technology: people commented that it wouldn’t necessarily hold their attention in the long term, and it requires an advanced knowledge of email manipulation through code.

I am still very interested in using email as data; however, I took a step back and tried to rethink my approach. I felt that thematically, email is not necessarily the issue – it’s simply a side effect of the over-arching feeling of being overwhelmed in our busy lives. Perhaps email can be used as a gauge of how overwhelmed we are: the more email, the more hectic. This led me to think about TV or movies as a way people use to dull their senses and escape through entertainment. What if your TV had distinct personality and voiced/relayed your email to you? Perhaps it simply represented the hectic life that we live.

The form that this project will ultimately take is very much dependent on what can be feasibly done with the technology in a relatively short period of time – specifically what can be done with the JavaMail API. So what can easily be measured? I have successfully taken Daniel Shiffman’s code implementing the JavaMail API with Processing, and after much research, have been able to convert access of a gmail account from POP3 to IMAP. This has provided a way to access all the emails in an inbox. With this data, I can easily compute changes to the inbox size – the magnitude at which the inbox increases or decreases over a specified time.

These are relevant and helpful links:
- Processing – sending images over email
- Email Processing at Daniel Shiffman
- CDM Labs – How to Read Your Email with the JavaMail API, Starring Gmail IMAP
- Connecting to IMAP Gmail with the JavaMail API
- Access GMail with imap using java mail api
- JavaMail and GMail Unread Messages

I’ve observed two differing behaviors when it comes to dealing with one’s inbox. Some actively delete/archive their messages from their inbox – when the inbox is empty, they have no pending emails that must be addressed. On the other hand, some do not delete/archive their emails as they keep their inbox as their main archive of all emails received, and they know which are pending because they are marked as unread, or moved to a designated folder. This is particularly true for users of Gmail. Therefore, it is unwise to use the absolute number of emails in an inbox, but rather to use the change in the inbox size to represent at what rate new emails arrive. An alternative is to retrieve only the number of UNREAD emails in the inbox – to pursue this option more research is required on how to implement it through code.

There are two possible persuasion types:
(X represents the number of unread emails or the rate of change of the inbox size)
- The higher X => the more stimulation (the more hectic life as gauged by email, the more hectic the representation.)
- The higher X => frozen action (the more hectic life, the more life is on hold until the block/hurdle is dealt with.)

What will the project actually be? Well, I was throwing around different ideas and returning to old ones. There could be a physical device with a servo motor that opens and closes the lid to a box that housed a real plant. There could be a graphical representation of a flower on screen – this would require looking into an interesting aesthetic for the flower through graphic design principles. There could be a dancer that dances more frenetically, or more dancers approach the dance floor and dance with a woman. Or Martin Arnold.

I have always been intrigued by Martin Arnold’s work, and I wonder how could a data stream control scrubbing a video clip dynamically, as opposed to an editor making specific choices. The data obtained from a particular inbox could be used to determine values for “deconstructing” a video – the number of frames of movement, for example. The video may scrub more vigorously if there are many unread messages (or high magnitude of change in inbox size), and may run more smoothly otherwise. This would be a visual representation of the level of being overwhelmed, or of chaos, in one’s life as gauged by one’s inbox. In addition, using and deconstructing lost and found footage, as Martin Arnold does, may serve multiple purposes. Perhaps the deconstruction will mimic how one’s life is being “deconstructed” by email. Perhaps the act of deconstruction will actually reveal latent beauty/emotions/themes within an unassuming, bland archival clip, emphasizing one to take a moment and reflect on one’s life and try to notice the beauty that is overshadowed by chaos. Lastly, perhaps by using old Hollywood film clips, it repurposes the entertainment medium that is intended for escapism as a way to reflect one’s real life and responsibilities.

Things to keep in mind for a relatively long-term interaction such as this:
- A way to refresh the email retrieval at a specified interval.
- Making sure the Processing and Pd sketch/patch run efficiently and smoothly without crashing.
- Using the correct communication protocol (OSC) between Processing and Pd, and sending the appropriate data (inbox change or unread email count).