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I report on an application that makes use of auditory display of data that represents an individual’s appreciation of his situation in the specific collaborative context of a family owned company. The auditory display is an emotion mapping of the company-family structure, and thereby transmits the emotional impact of possible future scenarios if no intervention takes place. The structural parameters ‘family complexity’, ‘company complexity’, ‘company structure’ and ‘structural risk’ are mapped to structural aspects of the auditory display that contain sufficient similarity to be readily appreciable with minimal preparation. The result is that the implicit emotional state of the analysis subject – a member of the family – is represented in the audio stream. This facilitates other family members’ empathy, because it circumvents subjective semantic interpretations and potential rejection of a purely verbal interpretation of the data. The technique is general and may be applied to other collaborative situations where a self-learning approach is preferred.

Funded by Danish Center for Design Research