Documentation

N.I.C.E. AWARD 2015 / WINNERS
Project: THE MACHINE TO BE ANOTHER
Presenter: BeAnotherLab, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Interviewees: Philippe Bertrand; Christian Cherene;
Norma Deseke; JJ Devereaux; Daniel González Franco;
Daanish Masood; Marte Roel; Arthur Tres
www.themachinetobeanother.org
Photo: I HATE FLASH
The N.I.C.E. Award 2015 is looking for new and stimulating
innovations that are solutions to global problems.
What problem do you address with your project?
BeAnotherLab researches the relationship between identity
and empathy. We develop multi-sensory systems combining
performance art, neuroscientific knowledge and digital
technology to create interaction protocols for the medium
of embodied virtual reality. We recreate subjective experiences
that alter the perspective onto the other by facilitating
a new perception of the self. Our work is grounded in
an action-research method that engages individuals and
communities in design, development and research across
borders. We aim to empower narratives from marginalised
communities and are committed to understand, reproduce
and communicate subjective experience for creating social
bonding and empathy between individuals in order to enable
a culture of peace.
What reactions have you received yet? Is the world
ready for your solutions?
Reactions have been crazily beautiful, wild, challenging,
thoughtful, intimate, intense and inspiring. We see empathy
as a trigger for exponential change. We have worked with
illegalised migrants, physically challenged persons, veterans,
activists, artists, academics, world leaders and space cats
– aiming to stimulate ambiguity, tolerance, self-understanding
and empathy. We collaborate with researchers ranging
from science to art departments in Brazil, USA, Germany,
France and Mexico, including institutions such as MIT and
the Max Planck Institute.
The N.I.C.E. Award 2015 focusses on digital innovation
through culture. How do you see the cultural sector
influenced by digitalisation?
The Digital Revolution enables us to exchange information
much faster than ever before over potential global distances.
Digitalisation has altered all aspects of human life in
different layers of intensity depending on positionality and
regional bonds. We are concerned about increased surveillance
and the potential emotional isolation created by
remote connectivity facilitated through new technologies.
We have the opportunity to create the grammar of Virtual
Reality as a new medium – in what kind of world do we
want to live? Our application of technology is centred on
connecting people emotionally, expanding identities as well
as the imagination in order to make another world possible.
We innovate embodied Virtual Reality and will continue
doing so with an ethical mission to contribute to a more
relationally smart humanity.
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