Lisa Messeri, "In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles" (Duke UP, 2024)
Mar 16, 2024
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Exploring the vision of VR as an 'empathy machine' in LA post-#MeToo era. Delving into the paradox of using VR to mend fractured realities. Emphasizing the intersection of place, technology, and social change in LA tech community.
VR was envisioned as an 'empathy machine' to address societal issues in Los Angeles.
Using VR to foster empathy faces challenges in representing diverse social realities.
VR tech for good initiatives can reinforce privilege while promoting narratives of inclusivity.
Deep dives
The Significance of Place in Understanding Technology Development
The book delves into the relationship between place and technology, particularly focusing on the impact of Los Angeles as a city on the development of virtual reality technologies. By exploring the Hollywood connection and the unique features of LA's technological terroir, the narrative challenges the notion of technology as a universal entity, emphasizing the distinct ways technologies take shape in different geographical contexts.
Navigating the Ethics and Realities of the Empathy Machine
The discussion revolves around the concept of the empathy machine within the virtual reality realm. It critically analyzes how VR technologies are framed as tools for fostering empathy and social betterment, tracing the historical roots of the empathy machine discourse. The book explores the complexities of empathy-building technologies, highlighting both their potential to deepen understanding and the inherent challenges in balancing representations and lived experiences.
Tech for Good: Assessing Privilege and Empathy in VR Narratives
Examining the dynamics of tech for good initiatives, the narrative scrutinizes how virtual reality, as an empathy machine, often caters to privileged users while promulgating narratives of societal empathy and inclusion. Through an exploration of embodied labs' usage in enhancing caregiver experiences, the book highlights the nuances of deploying VR technologies to empower marginalized communities, shedding light on the intersections of privilege, empathy, and technological interventions.
Themes in Women's VR Communities
The podcast delves into the evolving dynamics within women's VR communities, highlighting the intersection of gender representation, industry diversity, and the impact of broader societal movements like the Me Too movement. It explores how women in VR challenge traditional tech roles by embracing diverse expertise beyond coding, emphasizing storytelling, production, and world-building. The conversation reveals the complex interplay of gender essentialism, industry diversity, and empowerment narratives within women's engagement in VR technology.
Navigating Truth and Misinformation in VR
The discussion shifts towards the ethical and political dimensions of VR technology, touching on issues of truth, misinformation, and interpretative potential within virtual environments. It references a podcast conversation post the January 6 insurrection, illustrating how industry dynamics and political ideologies intersect. The exploration encompasses tensions between VR's empathetic promises and toxic positivity, highlighting the critical role of nuanced articulations in shaping the future trajectory of VR technology.
In the mid-2010s, a passionate community of Los Angeles-based storytellers, media artists, and tech innovators formed around virtual reality (VR), believing that it could remedy society’s ills. Lisa Messeri offers an ethnographic exploration of this community, which conceptualized VR as an “empathy machine” that could provide glimpses into diverse social realities. She outlines how, in the aftermath of #MeToo, the backlash against Silicon Valley, and the turmoil of the Trump administration, it was imagined that VR—if led by women and other marginalized voices—could bring about a better world. Messeri delves into the fantasies that allowed this vision to flourish, exposing the paradox of attempting to use a singular VR experience to mend a fractured reality full of multiple, conflicting social truths. She theorizes this dynamic as unreal, noting how dreams of empathy collide with reality’s irreducibility to a “common” good. With In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles(Duke UP, 2024), Messeri navigates the intersection of place, technology, and social change to show that technology alone cannot upend systemic forces attached to gender and race.
