Virtual Realities:

Swetha Sriram

Pronouns: she/her

Research Mentor(s): Sara Blair
Co-Presenter: Hurwitz, Sarah
Research Mentor School/College/Department: English / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 5 – 3:40pm – 4:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Sara Blair, Swetha Sriram, Sarah Hurwitz
Presenter: 67

Abstract

Abstract: Virtual Reality: Empathy and its Discontents A popular emergent form of technology, virtual reality is just beginning to be studied from a critical-humanistic perspective. Many VR makers praise its exceptional power—its capacity for immersiveness, or the ability to feel present in the virtual reality setting, and interactiveness—to put its users inside narrative worlds, creating opportunities for empathy These makers see empathy as an inherent feature of the VR experience, often assuming that it is meaningful and unproblematic (Milk 2015). This project studies the impact of VR’s expansion of the traditional narrative effects, with a focus on critical understanding of VR’s strategies for creating empathy. While contributing to surveys of available VR projects, it aims to challenge understandings of how VR changes the way people understand experiences that are not their own. It also models the contributions a humanities-centered perspective brings to the study of VR. Many first-person VR experiences provide users an opportunity to step into the shoes of another person—including people with minoritized identities—as they seek to foster a more connected, educated, and understanding world. This project of empathy, however, is widely disputed. Technically, there are questions about VR’s actual impact on users and whether it counts as meaningful empathy. Ethically, there are concerns regarding the potential for exploitation, e.g. the concept of identity tourism: the practice of pretending to be a member of a marginalized group one is not a part of (Nakamura 2020). These debates warrant further research and lead to the central research questions of the project: What is the value of VR as a storytelling technology if it is not an “empathy machine”? Is VR’s claimed ability to incite “true empathy” a reflection of Eurocentric notions of identity tourism or does it have the capacity to promote meaningful reflection on the lives of others and their social and cultural systems?

Presentation link

Engineering, Arts and Humanities