Challenging the myth that virtuality comes exclusively together with disembodiment, VR setups such as ‘Machine to Be Another’ give us an opportunity to question the boundaries between two people and to see and feel the world as someone else. ‘Machine to Be Another’ is an Open Source Art investigation on the relation of Identity and Empathy that has been developed on a basis of low budget experiments of Embodiment and Virtual Body Extension.
Designed as an interactive performance installation, the ‘Machine’ offers users the possibility of interacting with a piece of another person’s life story by seeing themselves in the body of this person and listening to his/her thoughts inside their mind.
The performer is someone interested in sharing a story about his/her existence. This role can be assumed by an actor interpreting a real situation, or rather it may be taken by any person (e.g. from the public) who is interested in sharing some episode about his or her life. In any case, the stories that are told by the performer will be experienced by another person, say the user.
Interview with the artists
With ‘The Machine to Be Another’, Philippe Bertrand, Daniel Gonzalez-Franco (ES), Arthur Pointeau (FR), Christian Cherene (FR), Marte Roel (MX) created a simple tool that can be applied in a variety of experimental situations. Together with partner institutions, they invented several different setups representing social scenarios that are demanding for an increasing empathy.
Complementary workshop
‘Empathetic Technology Design’
As part of NODE15’s educational platform, the artists introduced and demonstrated the technological aspects behind their work.
As the project is realized open source, workshop participants learnt how to implement and adapt this empathetic technology concept for their own scenarios.
