Becoming the "Other"

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JC: In your opinion does VR have the potential for destabilizing the dynamics of the "other," perhaps creating a simultaneous experience of other-ness and self that could be perceived as both different and personally identifiable?

BL: The "other" meaning the other viewer?

JC: The "other" meaning the other race, gender, or class...

BL: Ahh yes... So that can we use it in a politically or socially empathic manner?

JC: Yes.

BL: Sure, if we can get somebody to do it! Let me see if I can think of some examples...

The problem is that VR is not a narrative medium. If someone has to process a narrative in order to understand what they're seeing, then you are asking their brain to do two fairly different things at once, in a very significant way... It's a question of experience design to do the kind of thing you're talking about, which seems more challenging as an artistic problem than a technical one.

(continued...)

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