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Hot take: VR is not inherently an empathy machine. In fact, many times it actually drives audiences away from an empathetic response.
THREAD 👇
THREAD 👇
Not claiming to be the first one to the punch here – standing on the shoulders of giants like @skydeas1:
It might seem like a semantic quibble, but I’d argue it’s not. I’ve seen how the empathy buzzword has allowed many artists to give themselves a pass in the responsibility of creation.
Obvious example: exploitation of poverty to drive sympathy versus honest depiction of life among those who are impoverished – including moments of joy and mundanity.
Voyeurship ≠ empathy. Sympathy ≠ empathy.
Often, empathy can be driven by bringing participants into understandings of their OWN body in space. This is powerfully reflected in @becomechained, which I had the great pleasure of experiencing recently.
In it, YOU take on Scrooge’s position without becoming Scrooge himself. The result is that you reflect on your own life – thereby activating your empathy engines toward humanity more broadly, the small and large decisions we make in the course of our lives.
Meanwhile @Vestige_VR lets me experience another person’s grief without pity. @WhereThoughts connects me to other people's intimate secrets just by listening. And there are countless other examples -- these are just ones at the top of my mind right now. forbes.com/sites/jessedam…
This isn’t meant to tear down anybody’s work; our industry is young and we’re still growing. Viva la experimentation!
But it’s also important that we don’t just give ourselves a pass on being thoughtful about the work we choose to produce and who we tap to produce it.
But it’s also important that we don’t just give ourselves a pass on being thoughtful about the work we choose to produce and who we tap to produce it.
Where possible, we should be empowering respective creators & populations to tell their own stories. @SV_SocEnt's work at @EVRealities is trying to bring this vision to life -- and it's one we need to champion.
I'm continually floored by just how much incredible work our small community continues to produce -- my hope, as always, is to do my small part to fan that flame.
FIN.
PS: 👏 @KhoiVietLe 👏@StanfordVR
