Precedents

A number of researchers have explored different ways to determine mental state and behavior change using technology. This work includes interpreting data from smartphones (Doryab, Min, Wiese, Zimmerman, & Hong, 2014), keystrokes & mouse movements (Kołakowska 2013), and social networks (Choudhury, Gamon, Counts, & Horovitz, 2013).

When thinking about such systems as imposed by an institution, I considered Foucault's concept of the panopticon. I specifically thought about how the potential of always being watched influences behavior.

I was influenced by the styles of writing in two texts. The first is Agony by Steven Zultanski, in which the author, "uses semi-rigorous mathematical and logical constraints to view the author's life and body, telescopically, as little bits of time and space." The second is Christopher Alexander's "A City is Not a Tree", particularly a passage in which he describes the interactions formed between otherwise separate elements in the environment.

The work "Prosthetic Manifesto" by Darrius Fletcher influenced my consideration of a tool that fills in deficiencies or blind spots in one's self-perception or self-regulation.