VIRTUAL
EMPATHY
Understanding empathy when designing a digital immersive experience
JUAN D. RUIZ DÍAZ
Ruiz Díaz, Juan Diego
BA 3D Digital Design and Animation
DESI1219 Design Research Project
Dissertation
VIRTUAL EMPATHY
Understanding empathy when designing a digital immersive experience
Tutor: Stacey Pitsillides
15th January 2018
University of Greenwich (London)
abstract
Whenever we find ourselves immersed in the enjoyment of a good song,
book, film or videogame more often that not would feel as if we had been
mentally transported to a different world, and hence, we feel as if we were
temporarily living someone else’s life. How is that possible? Are we all just
predisposed to deeply emphatise and engage with fictional characters
and scenarios? Or is it all due to designers taking certain decissions when
creating this type of experiences? By analysing the case of iAnimal (A 2016
360º film where the user -thanks to the help of a Virtual Reality headset- is
placed in the middle of a slaughterhouse for the sake of experiencing what
is like to be a facory farmed animal) as well as the potential applications of
VR, I will be looking into a bunch of different areas of science that answer
all these questions and are ultimately required to the knowledge of any future creative intending to make a truly empathy-evoking experience.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, to the University of Greenwich for their untiring guidance
and help. More remarkably, to my coursemates and tutors and
further members from the Creative Professions and Digital Arts
Department as well as the helpful staff from Stockwell Street Library for the valuable resources provided during the development
of the current dissertation.
To Lana and Lilly Wachowski, creators of the 1999 film The Matrix,
which set a turning point in my early adulthood.
Huge shout out to Animal Equality UK, the organization I am
proud to volunteer for. Thank you for working so hard on behalf of
animal rights. Thank you also for investing your biggest efforts in
developing iAnimal, the incredible 360º documentary this entire
thesis is supported on.
Last but not least, to Diego and Cándida, my amazing parents. For
their unconditional love and support throughout my entire life,
and especially during my years as a student.
LIST OF FIGURES
1.
iAnimal: Carer Checking On Pigs in a Slaughterhouse (Promotional Shot) *
2. iAnimal: Factory Farmed Pigs in Cages. From: Through the Eyes of a Pig *
3. iAnimal: Free Range Chickens. From: 42 Days *
4. iAnimal: Dairy Cows Caged Outdoors. From: The Dairy Industry in 360º *
5. Six Images Taken from the Context, Action, and Intention Clips (2005) Iacoboni,
M. et al., From: Grasping the Intentions of Others with One’s Own Mirror Neuron
System. PLOS | Biology, 3(3), pp. 529-535.
6. iAnimal: Explicit Slaughtering of Chickens Going through Conveyor. From: 42
Days *
7. iAnimal: Explicit Slaughtering of Pigs. From: Through the Eyes of a Pig *
8. Antropomorphism in fictional non-human characters (1991) Trousdale, G., &
Wise, K. (Directors). From: The Beauty and the beast [Motion Picture]. Retrieved
December 12, 2017
* Figures 1-4, 6, 7 (2016) From: Animal Equality, iAnimal. [Online] Available at: ianimal.uk [Accessed 7 October 2017].
(1) Note to reader: all figures have been inserted at the end of every pertinent
chapter for the sake of layout simplification
VIRTUAL EMPATHY
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
INTRODUCTION
Page 2
2.
3.
THE iANIMAL EXPERIENCE
UNDERSTANDING EMPATHY
Page 4
Page 7
4.
3.1. What is empathy?
3.2. Why do we feel such a thing?
3.3. How do we feel empathy?
Page 7
Page 9
Page 12
EVOKING EMPATHY THROUGH MEDIA
Page 14
4.1. How is empathy achieved in media?
4.2. How has VR extended it
4.3. Does more immersion mean more empathy?
5.
DESIGNING VIRTUAL EMPATHY
Page 21
5.1. What is the role of a designer constructing empathy?
5.2. How will the designer’s work improve with the
implementation of VR?
6.
7.
Page 14
Page 17
Page 20
CONCLUSSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Page 21
Page 25
Page 26
Page 28
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introduction
V
irtual Reality (hereinafter VR) refers to any computer generated environment that has
been developed throughout software and delivered to the user in a way so the aforementioned takes it as real (Rouse, 2015). VR made its first appearance into the market during the
1990s (Edwards, 2015) but it has not been up until recently that it has gained substantial popularity. This is due to the exponential development the videogames industry has experienced in the last
few decades and therefore the amount of new implementations for this technology (Reisinger, 2015).
I believe that the potential future applications for VR in society are very promising: just as American game developer Phil Kauffold claimed in a TEDxSonomaCounty event in 2015, where he explained how VR was used for more immersive experiences in museums, media or virtual shopping
among many others and it was also under testing in a tremendous variety of different activities, such
as sports broadcasts, historical re-enactments or even for medical purposes: where it is being used
as a tool to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD – according to Kauffold (Kauffold, 2015).
To me, achieving empathy in media requires a major degree of engagement with the audience: the user needs
to not only be willing to temporarily discard their analytical capabilities and accept something chimerical or
delusive as authentic – this phenomenon is normally referred in shorter words as suspension of disbelief (Oxford Dictionary, n.d.) –, but I also believe there are a clear amount of design decisions that makers must take in
order to reach their public and one of the main ones is choosing a medium to deliver the content on. I find VR to
be a fascinating technology that enables the creators to immerse their viewers into their media relatively easy.
This area of study is to further investigate the design decisions that need to be taken when intending to
deliver an immersive piece of audiovisual content that aims to evoke more empathy through VR by particularly focusing on the case of iAnimal (see Figure 1) - a new 360º environment, where the viewer is
placed in the middle of a slaughterhouse that came out on March 2016 as a 360º video. Organisations
such as Animal Equality have gone far to spread this interactive footage and, in 2017, they started doing
so throughout several universities and colleges across many European countries (Animal Equality, 2017).
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As a vegan activist myself, the subject touches me deeply to a personal level for a number of different reasons. Since a very early age, I have always been horrified about the way we treat the animals we share
this planet with, always hoping for a big change that will bring us a paradigm to focus on moving forward
collectively and realise the cruelty involved into every egg, steak and glass of milk that is put in our tables.
The methodology I will be carrying out will make me look into the following questions: What makes us
empathetic in media and how has VR extended it? What are the key elements every designer needs to
implement into their work when trying to achieve a successful suspension of disbelief on their audience?
To answer the above, I will look into the details of why and how do human beings feel empathy, analysing some
of the facts that science can currently provide us with. Supporting my work with research into neuroscience
and more specifically mirror neurons as well as Charles Darwin evolutive theorems on The Descent of Man,
The Origin of Species and Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals .The sources I will be using in order to
document the current dissertation will vary from a wide range of articles, journals, research papers and books.
Figure 1: iAnimal: Carer Checking On Pigs in a Slaughterhouse (Promotional Shot)
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the IANIMAL
EXPERIENCE
D
eliberately created to be displayed in VR headsets, The iAnimal Experience is an activism for animal rights project comprising a set of 3 short documentaries that visually expose
in a concise and objective manner what the meat and dairy industries look like from within.
The first documentary goes by the title Through the Eyes of a Pig (see Figure 2) and it’s narrated by actor Peter Egan; its footage shows the conditions pigs go through from the moment they
are born until the moment they’re slaughtered for serving as human consumption. The investigation this documentary is supported on was carried out by a team of researchers from NGO Animal Equality that documented the standard conditions of the meat industry across seven countries.
Similarly, 42 Days (see Figure 3) -the second documentary- shows what a factory farmed chicken’s life looks
like from a first person point of view. Narrated by actress Amanda Abbington, the footage presents us with a
bunch of baby chickens that have just been separated from their mothers after birth, and shows us the few subsequent steps that happen in the life of an average chicken until its life ends 42 days after birth, hence the title.
The last of the documentaries that The iAnimal Experiene has produced as of December 2017 is called
The Dairy Industry in 360 Degrees (see Figure 4) and focuses on the suffering that cows and calves
have to go through every day in the dairy industry. Featuring actress Evanna Lynch as the narrator, the footage shows the practices that take place in the industry (such as the constant impregnation dairy cows have to deal with in order to be able to produce the milk the market demands) and
that hide behind every glass of milk or ounce of cheese that is consumed (Animal Equality, 2017)
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Figure 2: iAnimal: Factory Farmed Pigs in Cages. From: Through the Eyes of a Pig
Figure 3: iAnimal: Free Range Chickens. From: 42 Days
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Figure 4: iAnimal: Dairy Cows Caged Outdoors. From: The Dairy Industry in 360º
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understanding
empathy
What is empathy?
E
mpathy consists in the capability of understanding someone else’s emotions (Molenberghs, 2017). The term was coined in the beginning of the 20th century as an urging need to translate Einfühlung −an existing German concept into English−, which roughly means “Feeling into” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2008).
Simpathy, on the flip side, is a feeling of care and concern for someone (often someone close) usually accompanied by a feeling of seeing that person better off and happier. Although this is not always necessarily
the case, sympathy and Empathy usually lead to each other (E.g. Psychopaths do not show any level of sympathy towards their victims but they do need to use empathy in order to cause them harm). (Burton, 2015)
According to psychologist Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory et al. in a study that was purposely carried out to determine the types of empathy, generally, two main factors are taken into consideration when studying empathy (G. Shamay-Tsoory, et al., 2009):
•
Affective empathy: Expressed by the ability to share the emotions of others or, in shorter words:
mirroring somebody else’s emotions. This is to say that those scoring a high level of affective
empathy will be those showing a strong intuitive sad response to sad situations (E.g. A news
report regarding a terrorist attack).
•
Empathetic concern: Ph.D. Ronald E. Riggio claims that this concept is the most often
thought whenever we hear the term “Empathy” (Riggio, 2011). It refers to the sympathetic and compassive response that we provide those under a negative emotional
state with. Essentialy, it is the ability to tune in with someone else’s feelings and react
appropriately.
•
Personal distress: It is a self-focused aversive reaction (Generating a state of anxiety,
stress and discomfort) towards someone else’s feelings. It cannot be used to measure
empathy. (E.g. Someone jealous as the person they love is engaged with someone else)
•
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•
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Cognitive empathy: It is the ability to fully understand the emotions of others although it does
not necessarily imply the sharing of those feelings. (E.g. A psychiatrist treating a patience). It is
measured according to three scales:
•
Perspective-taking: Consisting in the act of looking at a particular situation from a different perspective (Generally someone else’s point of view) for tactical purposes.
•
Fantasy: The fundamental inclination to identify with fictional characters emotions,
which I personally it to be one of the key elements audio-visual content creators support themselves on in order to create something their audience will engage with and
will lead to further discussion throughout this dissertation.
•
Gracious rebellion: The aforementioned concept refers to patiently and compassionately bring peace to two sides that happen to be opposing. The key to this, according
to Buddhist activist Thich Nhat Hanh, is understanding both sides (Allyn, 2012):
“ To go to one side and describe the suffering being endured by the other side, and then go to the other side and
describe the suffering being endured by the first side “
(Thich Nhat Hanh, 2008)
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Why do we feel such a thing?
A
lthough unusual in the animal kingdom, empathy is not a unique feature to humans: whereas on
the one hand many birds and mammals tend to show clear signs of bonding not only with their
youngs but in some cases with their partners (Sometimes even for life); fish and reptiles, on the
other hand, do not present that much evidence concerning attachment and therefore make it through
their lives alone (Hanson, 2010)
More specifically in primates – our most closely related species, genetically speaking– empathy has been
observed to share many similarities with the way we as humans experience that particular feeling. Dutch
primatologist Frans De Waal Ph.D. analysed some of the aforetasted resemblances throughout some particular case studies in an article The Greater Good Magazine published in 2005:
In 1964, a group of researchers led by Dr. Jules Masserman at Northwestern University reported in the
American Journal of Psychiatry that when a bunch of rhesus monkeys were told to pull a chain that would
reward them with food though would also shock a fellow companion, monkeys would refuse to pull the
chain. One particular subject chose to starve for nearly 12 days rather than submit his companion to an
electroshock.
Another case study dates back to 1925, where American psychologist Robert Yerkes reported how his
bonobo was so particularly concerned about his feeble chimpanzee companion that Yerkes feared the
scientific establishment would not accept his claims as he allegated that he would be accused of idolizing
an ape.
Similarly, Russian pioneer in the study of animal cognition, Nadia Kohts; analysed her chimpanzee’s behaviour into detail to determine that the only way to get him off the roof after a runaway was by arousing
sympathy (Not punishments nor food treats)
Although not analysed by De Wall, it is also worth pointing out a particular case from 1917 carried out by
Wolfgang Köhler in which a chimpanzee was to climb up a pile of wooden crates in order to be able to
reach out to a banana that was hanging from the ceiling. As the chimp was stretching his arm to grab the
banana, another fellow ape was mimicking his arm movements from the the floor meaning it was a clear
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In the same article, De Waal concludes that these observations prove that besides from emotional connectedness, apes have an understanding of their fellow relatives and friends situation and needs and
therefore show certain level of perspective-taking (De Waal, 2005).
In addition to the above, it is important mentioning that in 1997, American ethnobotanist Terence McKenna once said during a lecture on Appreciating Imagination in the Esalen Institute in California, in a
humorous tone:
“We became the unmatched predator on the planet, but
who would have ever placed their bet on a monkey to be
the top carnivore considering there were sabre-toothed
cats walking around that weighed 1,100 pounds?”
(McKenna, 1997)
In response to the above quote, it is worth getting back to the aforementioned Ph.D. Rick Hanson, who in
the same publication stated that more than developing the necessary skills to use pointy tools and therefore succeed in violent engagements, it was the complexities of our relationships what shaped human
evolution (Hanson, 2010).
English naturalist Charles Darwin, one of the most prominent opinions when it comes to discussing evolution; also acknowledges what the previously mentioned experts have ratified.
Interestingly, the term “Empathy” was not introduced until 1909 and therefore said coinage never took
place during Dawin’s life, who passed away earlier on in 1882.
Years after publishing On the Origin of Species in 1860, Charles Darwin started setting the ground in 1871
in regards to his research about empathy with his The Descent of Man, a book where he applied evolutionary theorems into human evolution. Darwin wrote in the aforesaid book (Johnson, 2017):
“The basis of sympathy lies in our strong retentiveness
of former states of pain or pleasure. Hence, “the sight of
another person enduring hunger, cold, fatigue, revives in
us some recollection of these states, which are painful
even in idea.” We are thus impelled to relieve the sufferings
of another, in order that our own painful feelings may be at
the same time relieved.”
(Darwin, 1871)
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Although he used the term “Sympathy”, there is little to no doubt as to what he really meant. He continued
this discussion in his Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals –which was published in 1872−
where he pointed out that “With the power of sympathy and imagination we are able to place ourselves in
the position of the sufferer”. American anthropologist Eric Johnson claims that by “Sympathy”, Darwin was
indeed referring to the idea of taking the perspective of someone else, which back then Germans knew
by the word Einfühlung. (Johnson, 2017)
Charles Darwin went far and beyond with his work in Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals and
proposed two hypothesis to support his theorem of perspective taking (Darwin, 1897):
1.
Individuals would mimic others behaviours when observing them perform difficult or challenging tasks.
2. They (Individuals) would be physically distressed while others are in pain and would look forward to stop said suffering.
Although he did not carry out any kind of experiments to check the validity of his hypothesis, the truth
is that during the 20th century several scientist from different backgrounds previously mentioned tested
out the ability of perspective-taking in primates (1) and the results were undeniable: Empathy is present
in primates −our closest related species− and it clearly laid the foundations of what humans are today, it
evolved (and still is) with us and contributed to us being who we are now.
Fellow American neuropsychiatrist Helen Riess also seems to agree on this matter, as she states that human survival depends on empathy (Riess, 2013). “We are all here because of mutual aid and cooperation
and not just survival of the fittest the way we understand it” – she adds.
Perspective-taking is the key: it is clear that without our ability to feel empathy for one another, the iAnimal Experience would have never had the impact that, as of December 2017, is having.
(2) Referring to the set of experiments discussed in the beginning of the
current chapter
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How do we feel empathy?
T
o further grasp how humans feel empathy, it is crucial to first of all get a better understanding of
mirror neurons and their function within our brains.
Also known as cubelli neurons, mirror neurons are activated both when we carry out a specific action (E.g.
reaching out for a toothbrush) and when we observe someone performing that same action. As observed
in Figure X: they are called mirror neurons because they literally mirror the behaviour of the other as if the
observer was the one performing the action (Iacoboni, 2009)
With the aid of functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI experiments; the existence of these particular type of neurons have so far been proven in primate species and of course, humans (Molenberghs,
et al., 2009).
Although mirror neuron’s ultimate purpose is yet to be determined, French-German neuroscientist Christian Keysers claims in his book The Empathetic Brain that these neurons are essential for comprehending
human behaviour as by studying them we better understand the actions of other people and learn new
abilities my mimicking those. (Keysers, 2011)
The aforementioned Italian neuropsychiatrist Marco Iacoboni and his colleagues carried out an experiment in 2005 in which a set of twenty-three people were asked to watch a series of stimuli while fMRI
resonances where being applied onto them (see Figure 5). The clips consisted of:
•
Hands grasping a mug (without a context)
•
Breakfast table with several objects (context only)
•
Grasping hand actions performed in two different contexts
The goal of the experiment was to determine the ability of the users to anticipate what action would follow
each clip by observing the neural activity on their brains. Without much scientific terminology and for the
sake of simplification: results established that actions embedded in contexts (unlike the other 2 scenarios)
yielded a considerable signal increase in the frontal gyrus and the ventral premotor cortex where hand
actions were represented meaning that mirror neuron areas previously thought to be exclusively involved
in action recognition are, in actuality, also involved in understanding the intentions of others.
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In conclusion to the above experiment, Iacoboni said that mirror neurons are the key element in our ability to feel empathy −forming the neural basis of it− as they are capable of anticipating someone else’s
intentions (Iacoboni, et al., 2005).
So far, and in regards to the evidence that has been examined throughout the present thesis, there is no
doubt that, although empathy is a trait that has been developed in the course of many years of evolution,
it is currently an in-built feature within us, and without it, we would not be human or be anywhere near
where we are now.
Research has proven that every human and primate is equipped a set of neurons (Mirror neurons) in their
brain that fire indistinctively of a particular action being performed or observed, this is to say that if we
see pain, we’ll feel pain. And these make the basis of the footage delivered in the iAnimal Experience: as
viewers are required to empathise with the agony and discomfort shown in the aforementioned videos
in order to create that visceral reaction from their side and ultimately achieving the goal of delivering the
message successfully.
Figure 5: Six Images Taken from the Context, Action, and Intention Clips (2005)
Iacoboni, M. et al., From: Grasping the Intentions of Others with One’s Own Mirror
Neuron System.
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evoking empathy
through media
How is empathy achieved in media?
B
ased on the research that has been presented so far, it is safe to say that in order to answer the
above question we must look into the two essential ingredients for this particular recipe: the viewers and the makers.
On the one hand, we have us: the viewers, an element that has been meticulously analysed all throughout
the current study. As discussed earlier, due to us being gifted with mirror neurons, we feature the capability of being able to feel affective empathy, humans have an immediate natural inclination to let themselves
be transported by a good narrative and, ultimately, live someone else’s life.
On the other hand, however, we have the media makers or creators: those who are responsible for providing us with an experience that we will deeply engage with.
From the creator point of view, there are virtually no limitations as to what is it that is required to develop
a fully engaging experience with the audience.
American screenwriter Stanley D. Williams believes that in order for a creator (in this case, a filmmaker)
to get to know and understand his audience, the viewer needs to be “stitched” into the movie using what
he considers, three different techniques:
•
Physical Stitching: Comprising the various approaches that creatives take advantage of in order
to bring their audience closer and more engaged with the story. These range from camera moves
to sound implementation.
In this regard, filmmakers exploit the use of the point of view by allowing the user to either perceive the story from a first person point of view or to simply be a third person observer that is
witnessing the action thanks to a long wide take that simulates the presence of the viewer in the
room.
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Another tropes worth mentioning are the exclusive ability to the viewer of also hearing the protagonist thoughts as well as leaving narrative gaps that the audience automatically fills in and keep
them as an active participant of the story (E.g. When the characters fly out of the country, but we
only see them getting in and out of the plane).
•
Emotional Stitching: Consisting of providing characters with a bunch of positive attributes that a
normal audience would willingly consider attractive and therefore identify with, such as: funny,
beautiful, skilful, powerful, hospitable, etc.
•
Moral Stitching: Williams believe that physical and emotional connections are important but to
really “stitch” the audience into the movie a strong moral premise statement, or MPS, is required.
The moral premise describes the values around which the entire story produces conflict because
all action originates in a psychological decision that comes from the character’s values.
In his book The Moral Premise Statement, Williams provides us with a generic form of the MPS:
[A psychological vice] leads to [A physical detriment] but
[A psychological virtue] leads to [A physical betterment]
Here is an example applied to Disney animated film The Incredibles (The Incredibles, 2004) in
order to help illustrate the above theory:
Facing adversities alone leads to defeat; but
Facing adversities as a family leads to victory.
As discussed above, there is no doubt that to fully engage with the audience the piece is being addressed
to, creatives need to make a good use of the available tools: characters, environment, narrative and sound
design to achieve their goal. But since this dissertation is aimed to serve as a resource for future designers, I will only focus in relating the physical and, to some degree, emotional stitching to the case study of
iAnimal.
When it comes to engaging with the audience physically (see Physical Stitching) there is one single element that stands out for its capabilities of helping the creative reach their goal among everything else
within the maker’s reach, and that is the medium.
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If we take a quick look at the history of storytelling and the media tools used throughout, we notice how
it was not up until the late 19th century that audio-visual content emerged thanks to technological advancements like radio and cinema, drastically changing a traditionally orally based, and some centuries
later, also written storytelling –the only two forms known prior to that−, none of the above ever reaching
very large audiences for a number of diverse reasons but mainly due to the high level of illiteracy in the
15th century.
Decades later, visual imagery set another milestone with the birth of a new story platform: television,
which led to the subsequent development of games consoles in the late 20th century: bringing users the
possibility to live the story from a first person point of view, as if it was themselves. The internet, soon
after, allowed us not only to accessibly create and share stories using every technique up to that moment
but also enhanced the way we experienced the available media tools (TV, radio, cinema, prose, etc) as it
brought us closer together and put us in a state of collective immersion (BrandJuice, 2012).
Immersion is defined as the state of being deeply engaged or involved in something whereas empathy
is the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of
another and hence there is no doubt that the term immersion is implied in the definition of empathy.
As previously cited Helen Reiss says: Understanding the fact that humans are social animals that require
not just to interact with the environment but also within ourselves for the sake of collective survival (Riess,
2013) is the key to see the connection between immersion and empathy.
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How has VR extended it?
N
o one doubts about the fact that every media maker’s goal is to captivate their audience’s attention: either in graphic design, music, film, games or any other field we could think of.
There are endless elements that creatives use to captivate audiences -besides delivering a good storyand they are all merely focused on empathising with the viewer (Nicholson, 2013). On the other hand,
American journalist and author Frank Rose claims that the medium itself –and not the story- is the ultimate responsible for us to have a true immersive and engaging experience. As Rose says (Rose, 2012)
“The more the medium can insert us into the action, the
more we’ll gravitate towards it’’ (Rose, 2012)
More specifically, in VR, empathy is achieved by implementing presence within. Presence is a phenomenon defined as an individual’s subjective sensation of being there in a scene depicted by a medium,
usually virtual in nature (Barfield & Furness, 1995).
Currently there are plenty of examples of artificially created scenarios where the user feels as if they were
part of consensus reality, this is known as Immersive virtual reality (Nechvatal, 1995). For this to be successful and actually be able to immerse the user into this we need to take certain things into consideration some elements such as photorealistic 3D computer graphics, immersive sound and interactive user
input (Abbasi & Baroudi, 2012). Other external elements to the computer generated environment such as
wind, seat vibration, ambience temperature, etc. are also currently being implemented in recent releases
such as Ambioterm –a VR physical temperature regulator- in order to enhance the immersive experience
(Houser & Javelosa, 2017).
In my opinion, this is all achievable with the aid of VR as it does not seem that given the current technology, this level of immersion could have been achieved otherwise and clear example of this is iAnimal,
a new immersive experience that came out in 2016. It’s designed in way so the viewer is placed in the
middle of a slaughterhouse where the killing is taking place (see Figures 6-7) as well-known vegan actors
such as Evanna Lynch or Amanda Abbington narrate the clip and provide relevant factual data.
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Animal rights organisation Animal Equality has been putting its biggest efforts to spread this experience
all throughout Europe since its release. It has been shown at universities and content related fairs mainly
but also there has been a lot of on the street “screening” in the main European capitals, including London,
Berlin, Paris and Madrid (Animal Equality, 2017).
The public reactions tend to vary considerably but overall, viewers remove their VR headsets feeling very
shocked and surprised about what they have just experienced. As one of the interviewees – while breaking into tears – said:
“…It’s hard to conceive how people still deny and wish to
remain ignorant.’’ (Animal Equality, 2016)
From all the evidence gathered regarding testimonials of those who have tried the iAnimal experience
for themselves, we come to the conclusion that eye witnessing this information is turning out to be an
excellent method for people to realise the abusive behaviour of the meat industry towards animals and
I’m sure many developments will be carried out for this technology to continue achieving its goal in the
subsequent future.
Figure 6: iAnimal: Explicit Slaughtering of Chickens Going through Conveyor.
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Figure 7: iAnimal: Explicit Slaughtering of Pigs. From: Through the Eyes of a Pig
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Does more immersion mean more empathy?
E
ven though we cannot yet determine what direction this trend will follow, nobody doubts that immersing the viewer in any of the roles that the iAnimal Experience allows to choose from, (Either
the slaughtered chicken, pig or the dairy cow that ends up killed) adds a total new perspective to
the story.
I personally believe –based on the research that has been presented throughout the above case studies–
that will not only the user engage better with the experience but also to deeply connect with the characters in it in a way that traditional storytelling as we know it has never achieved.
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designing virtual
empathy
What is the role of a designer constructinfmepathy?
A
s previously argued, in any field of design –not just 3D- empathy plays a key role since every maker needs to engage deeply with the people they’re designing for in order to be able to have their
needs properly taken care of (Dam & Siang, 2017).
As these authors say; Design is human-centred because it is intended for economic profit. This statement is supported in the fact that main animation and videogame studios provide with anthropomorphic
features to every single non-human character that they design (See Figure 8). This is not a mere coincidence; it is in fact, something that the industry has deliberately put a lot of effort on researching just so
the target audience is capable of seeing those computer generated characters as something relatable
and therefore engages with the product that they’re trying to sell (Jardim, 2011).
Among a 3D designer’s top challenges building empathy there are not only the technical aspects of it
–such as the difficulty to create realistic 3D human models or the complications that modelling hair may
present, for instance – but also the requirement to observe others very carefully and be able to feel outside the designer’s own personal constraints, in other words: to be empathetic and being able to feel what
someone else feels, in order to to develop something their audience will be able to relate to.
The importance of the Moral Premise has been argued earlier on throughout the current essay: a designer must make sure that the whole narrative arc is backed up with a clear moral goal that drives the
actions and allows the viewer to fully immerse in the story while sharing the same objective the characters pursue.
But the truth is that on top of a solid background story that carries a powerful moral premise, any 3D designer that wants to achieve empathy in a VR environment will also need to take several other elements
into consideration when developing some of the key assets:
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1.
Characters: When designing a character that is able to evoke empathy, we need to consider what
Ana Paiva and her colleagues call the proximity factor: as discussed in a similar way earlier, audiences (More specifically children) need a character that they can feel closely related to in order
for that affectiveness to take place. This seems to be the case when characters share features
such as sex, gender or experience with the viewer. (Paiva, et al., 2007)
2. Environment: American academic and author Karl Kapp claims that Virtual Inmersive Environments (Hereinafter VIE) support themselves on a moral premise –as discussed earlier – that the
designer must work on to develop an actual learning environment meaning that the designer
must make experiences that lead the learner along a course to assimilate further learning.
Although ultimately it all depends on the user’s experience, the interactive learning should be
engineered in a way so it constantly anticipates the user by making every teachable moment
arise as frequently as possible.
In the words of Kapp: ‘A experience is about context more than it is about content’. Wheareas
content refers to explicit topics and principles; context, on the other hand, applies to the particular mechanism that renders the content, giving it meaning and therefore, making it operable.
Considered the above discussion, there are several concepts that a designer shall be looking
into further detail when creating a 3D virtual learning experience (Kapp & O’Driscoll, 2010):
o
o
o
o
o
Develop the right context
Creative specific targets without telling the user
Encourage teamwork
Allow the user to demonstrate their learning
Build in incentives
3. Sound: There is no doubt that truly immersive experiences must be multi-sensory for them to
succeed in the goal of engaging with the user.
Because of that, sound plays a key role in it and therefore, we shall say that simulating sound in
the same way as it behaves in the real world is a crucial task.
To achieve this, we must firstly get an understanding of spatial audio or the fact that, depending
where the sound waves come from, these will reach the user’s ear canals in a different time and
magnitude. The main responsible factors for this are frequency, distance and direction (Bonasio,
2017).
Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTF) is a response that defines how an ear receives a sound
from a specific point in space making it a good subject matter to further understand the differences in sound perception for every person and thus one designers will need to focus on when
trying to make spatial audio sound natural.
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Although the iAnimal Experience is not a three-dimensional render, it does –to an extent – take into consideration all the aspects discussed in the current chapter (Characters, environment and sound design)
however not into very deep detail as, despite being a great piece of work that evokes a big sense of empathy in the user, it is missing, in my opinion, further interativity.
A higher level of playability as well as better developed assets would have immersed the viewer in the experience even more. Even though the actual content of the iAnimal Experience is astonishingly eloquent
and persuasive; the context: or the way the content is delivered, still shows some technical aspects that,
if improved, would induce a much more empathetic response in the audience and ergo my reasoning for
such a statement:
When it comes to the characters, I believe that the proximity factor is achieved quite successfully as the
pain that is being depicted on screen are not mere representations but real footage showing chickens,
pigs and cows that any viewer from any background would immediately recognize and therefore be able
to relate to.
However on the other hand, when it comes to the design of both the environment and sound, although
most probably due exclusively to the limitations of the tools designers currently have on their hands
nowadays and though the maker’s goal was to purely make a documentary and not a videogame, there
is a lack of believability that affects the message the creators are intending to deliver. So, if this was to be
improved:
•
•
Further interactivity to be added environment wise: as discussed previously, an immersive
environment requires the user to be guided through a learning path while allowing chances
to demonstrate their learning by introducing built-in incentives that in traditional gaming are
known as levelling or tokening. Perhaps due to a mere informative nature, the iAnimal Experience is missing a computer generated environment in which the user explores the slaughterhouse freely as he learn important facts regarding the meat industry.
More carefully designed sound to allow a major level of immersion of the user into the experience. Given the complications of effective spatial audio design and the fact that not everyone
is able to perceive sound in the same way due to a number of different biological reasons
(Skull structure, bone density, inner ear structures, etc), further emerging technologies, along
with VR, could be looked at when aiming to develop a future improved analogue experience
to iAnimal
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Figure 8: Antropomorphism in fictional non-human characters (1991) Trousdale,
G., & Wise, K. (Directors). From: The Beauty and the beast
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How will the designer’s work improve
with the implementation of VR?
O
ne clear improvement in regards to the work of a designer in VR will be the fact, that unlike any
other medium known to date, the user will be completely immersed into the content that has
been placed right in front of his eyes, leaving virtually no place for distractions from any kind of
external stimulus.
Although this is essentially speculative; I genuinely believe that thanks to VR, and with the constant need
of creating assets that keep the viewer’s sense of attention on the screen being taken out of the equation,
the content of the interactive experiences will gain a much more meaningful approach and hence the
reason of the emergence of iAnimal and other releases of very closely related nature such as Project Empathy(2) and Across the Line VR(3).
Since both hardware and software development in the field of VR –or any other field- are not likely to stop
any time soon, we could soon very likely be experiencing VR scenarios that are completely undistinguishable from ordinary reality. Replicating someone else’s reality and experience it in first hand as if it was
inherent to the viewer will soon be a very common thing to see (Milk, 2015).
(3) Project Empathy is a series of immersive experiences aiming to make
the user understand what is like to be someone else. Documentaries vary
from being a teenager in a US prison or a widow in India. (Project Empathy,
2016)
(4) Across the Line VR immerses the viewer in the role of a pregnant womand aims to deal with the problematic of American women suffering from
bullying when attending abortion clinics. (Across the Line, 2017)
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CONCLUSSION
B
ased on the research presented throughout this dissertation, it is safe to say that evoking empathy
in audio-visual media is far from ever being a rigid process from beginning to end.
In order to further understand this, the current area of study has looked deeply into why, how and when
does the user experience empathy. Defined as the ability to take someone else’s perspective in a cognitive
and affective level, empathy is a trait that has evolved alongside with humans for thousands of years thus
making it the key feature as to why humans engage so deeply with fictional characters and situations.
Having a clear insight of what empathy is and how and when does it take place is not all that a designer
whose goal is to mimic such feeling needs to be aware of; as discussed above, the just as important technical aspects of it are a difficult soil to conquer meaning that solid narratives, characters, environments,
sounds and most importantly, medium, need to be brought into the scene.
Every story needs a medium to be told on: either prose, a radio podcast, a film or a TV series. These offer
a different scale of immersion to the user and ultimately play a key role in the captivation of the audiences.
Here is where Virtual Reality breaks the constraints of immersion as we traditionally understood, since it
fools the user’s brains by letting them take a computer generated environment as real.
Although VR has been present in the market for nearly two decades now, it has not been up until recently
that we have started to develop real applications for it and therefore the social uncertainty concerning
many aspects of it.
By detailed analysis of the case study of iAnimal, we conclude that this technology is currently proving
that immersing the user in the narrative creates a sense of engagement that traditional storytelling, given
the current tools, could have never achieved.
It has just been recently that iAnimal –along with the aforementioned Project Empathy and Across the
Line, among many others– made it to the headlines and, as its own creators say: ‘It’s merely an experiment’. As of December 2017, the results are being astonishing and the positive empathetic response from
the audience, absolutely overwhelming.
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We could start drawing solid conclusions now and say that Virtual Reality is the ultimate Empathy machine but I believe that for now it will be best to stay cautious and pay close attention to the evolution of
VR and the big positive changes that will bring – and is bringing- to the design field, and to the world in
general as we currently know it.
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