An A/UK Event: Can Immersive Technology Increase Our Empathy?

In collaboration with TomTech (the annual technology and arts conference at the Old Market in Brighton), The Alternative UK is running an event at #TomTech's September 2017 Festival titled "360° Democracy – The Politics of Immersive Technology". 

Can immersive technology increase our empathy? 

We intend to explore how the current and coming range of "immersive technologies" - which go variously by the names of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality -  might (or might not) help us expand our understanding, both personal and political, of those around us.  

Does a VR experience make "standing in the shoes of an other" - whether refugee or militia, protestor or police - feel visceral, rather than theoretical?

If new devices layer an additional reality over our senses, or wrap an entirely new reality around us, then what kind of citizens are we in these spaces (as well as just consumers or fun-seekers)?

What choices about power and control do these technologies compel us to make? Are they just an escape from a broken reality, or a new form of motivation for intervening into that reality - a way to imagine and plan "alternatives"? 

These are only some of the questions we'll be exploring, via speakers/panels, VR/AR installations, and creative facilitations, on September 27th, 2017, 6.30-9.00pm, all ticket and venue details here (or on Eventbrite).

Tickets are free, and please spread this invitation around your friends and peers. We look forward to meeting you all!