ABSTRACT

This contribution critically discusses the diction of VR/XR as the “ultimate empathy machine” by presenting different concepts of immersion and embodied interaction. In a movement from the eye to the body and from the body to the mind, it is argued that specific XR configurations promote paradigm shifts from ocular centrism and tactile visuality to physical embodiment and interaction. One crucial question hereby is whether a virtual body swap also implies a mindset swap, which would be an index for an enhanced stimulation of empathy. The argument is backed up by reflections on the potential of interventionist experience as a socio-cultural and socio-technological experiment. A case study of "The Machine to be Another", an XR embodiment system, serves as an exemplary assemblage which aspires to translate current discourses in collective and individual psychology, neurosciences and STS into the field of artistic research and intervention. Revisiting concepts of illusionary embodiment and virtual body swaps as well as physical and virtual presence, the focus lies on different dimensions of empathy in XR-settings. It is argued that the concept of immersion should always be accompanied by critical disimmersion or estrangement that reminds user-interactors of the contingency of mediated emotions and affects and allows to bridge the gap between ‘primary empathy’ and ‘extended empathy’.