Virtual Empathy

Empathy is derived from the Greek ‘pathos’, which has an ambiguous connotation, meaning both ‘passion’ as well as ‘suffering’.

Before summer a group of HKU Fine Art students (BA and MA) took part in a seminar where they experimented with digital media, its tools and platforms and their application in our everyday life; like in advertisements, games and security systems. Increasingly these media have become physical elements with an impact on our body, our access and mobility, our visibility and our interrelations. By studying the potential and the problems that may arise when virtual tools promise us empathic encounters, the students engaged in finding alternative modes of representation.

In the on- and offline exhibition Virtual Empathy, thirteen participants showcase works which they have developed in reaction to the seminar. The results of their research span the virtual as well as the physical world, asking questions about how we generate feelings in the digital realm: how do we connect with each other in online and virtual spaces? Who owns the digital tools and what are their intentions? As we use and appropriate them, how do we maintain our agency?

At AG
Katharina Busl, Noud van den Boogaard, Jordy van den Berg, Junhao Xiang, Caja Boogers, Katinka Kuipers, Yuliia Elyas, Chun-Yao Lin

Online (represented in AG through a screen presentation and performances)
Esmé Deniet, Saskia Benítez, Yuen Ming Lo, Kristel Rigaud & Naomi Moonlion, Yuri Stokking

Exhibition
October 23 – November 13
Wednesday – Saturday 13:00 – 18:00 h.