Designing digital empathy through technologically augmented encounters in the performative arts

Drawing from Lijiang Shen’s components of affective empathy, cognitive empathy and associative empathy, and considerations of the relationship between immersion and empathy, this article argues for a focus on embodied experience as a way of effectively developing digital empathic experiences through technologically augmented encounters using VR/XR/multisensory spaces. Three virtual reality (VR) arts-based projects are used as case studies, all of which integrate extended reality (XR) components into their experiences. The first is the work of the artist collective BeAnotherLab and their ongoing project Library of Ourselves, the second is the mixed reality installation Carne y Arena (Virtually present. Physically invisible) created in 2017 by film director Ajejandro G. Innaritu, and the third is a performative VR installation Mammary Mountain presented in 2024 by artists Tara Baoth Mooney, Camille Baker and Maf’j Alvarez, that utilizes a haptic garment as part of the experience. Each of the projects deals with experiences of racism, of migration, and of health, and invites each of us, through VR/XR/multisensory, to explore stories through embodied practices that can powerfully evoke empathy in digital and immersive contexts.