VR as Empathy Machine: VR Innovation & Post-Humanitarianism

Hosted by the Disciplines of Sociology & Criminology | Gender & Cultural Studies | Media & Communications

SPEAKER

Professor Sandra Ponzanesi, Utrecht University 

ABSTRACT

Virtual reality (VR) is considered a game changer for our media futures. VR is an innovative technology that allows you to experience another person’s point of view through immersion and embodiment. For this reason, it has been postulated as the ultimate ‘empathy machine’, a ‘technology of feeling’ or a good technology that promotes compassion, connection and intimacy by allowing the viewer to experience the lives of those who are distant others, for example migrants or refugees. It has been increasingly used to this effect in humanitarian appeals (UNCHR, IOM, Red Cross) to solicit donations and renew public engagement. This talk explores the enthusiasm, but also the ethical reservations, surrounding this new media genre of post-humanitarian appeal. It does so through the analysis of some VR projects dealing with migration and refugee issues, such as Nonny de la Peña’s Project Syria (2012), Gabo Arora and Chris Milk’s Clouds over Sidra (2015), Ben C. Solomon and ImraanIsmail’s The Displaced, (2015) and Tamara Shogaolu’sQueer in a Time of Forced Migration (2020), among others. There is in fact no scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of VR for social good. On the contrary, there is increasing awareness of the pernicious persistence of damaging stereotypical representations, which are now disguised under the equalizing force of the ‘empathy machine’. This talk concludes that the drive for innovation and technological quick fixes should be understood within a socio-critical context, which includes the participation of vulnerable groups, avoiding easy universalism and stereotypes. 

Professor Sandra Ponzanesi is Chair and Professor of Media, Gender and Postcolonial Studies at the Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands. She has published widely in the fields of media, postcolonial studies, digital migration and postcolonial cinema with a particular focus on postcolonial Europe from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. She is currently leading the NWO funded project “Virtual Reality as Empathy Machine: Media, Migration and the Humanitarian Predicament”.