The Inside Story

The Inside Story is a podcast about building an institute for empathic and immersive narrative, supported by an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Justice Seed Grant. In this episode, Wallace Lages, Eric Lyon, and Tyechia Thompson think through the role of empathy, access, and narrative in immersive technologies in conversation with our entire advisory board.

The Inside Story is a podcast about building an institute for empathic and immersive narrative, supported by an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Justice Seed Grant. In this episode, Wallace Lages, Eric Lyon, and Tyechia Thompson think through the role of empathy, access, and narrative in immersive technologies in conversation with advisory board member Al Evangelista, a multidisciplinary artist and an Assistant Professor of Dance at Oberlin College.

Al Evangelista told us about his “Places I can’t dance” app, in which users can help Al dance in augmented reality where he cannot do so in real life. We considered the complexities of power, permission, and care involved in working with archives and community partners. Circling around the maxim “Don’t do anything that hurts,” the conversation also explored ways to navigate allyship, bystander intervention, and harm. We concluded by reflecting on ways to simulate touch in immersive technologies and the protocols for allowing people to approach one another.

In this episode, Wallace, Eric, and Tyechia will be thinking through the role of empathy, access, and narrative in immersive technologies in conversation with our advisory board member Dr. Bryan Carter, an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Center for Digital Humanities at the University of Arizona. Dr. Bryan Carter received his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Columbia and is currently the Director of the Center for Digital Humanities and an Associate Professor in Africana Studies, at the University of Arizona. He specializes in African American literature of the 20th Century with a primary focus on the Harlem Renaissance. His research also focuses on Digital Humanities/Africana Studies. He has published numerous articles on his doctoral project, Virtual Harlem, an immersive representation of a portion of Harlem, NY as it existed during the 1920s Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Dr. Carter’s research centers on how the use of traditional and advanced interactive and immersive technologies changes the dynamic within the learning space. Dr. Carter has completed his first book entitled Digital Humanities: Current Perspectives, Practice and Research through Emerald Publishing, and has just completed his second manuscript through Routledge Press, entitled: AfroFuturism: Experiencing Culture Through Technology (June 2022). His current work has also led to exploring the African American, and expatriate experience through immersive and augmented technologies using handheld devices and wearable technologies.

In this episode, Wallace, Eric, and Tyechia will be thinking through the role of empathy, access, and narrative in immersive technologies in conversation with our advisory board member, Dr. Riham Alieldin, a physician, a medical educator at the University of Rochester's Warner School of Education.

In this episode, Co-PIs for the ACLS Building an Institute for Empathic Immersive Narrative grant, Wallace Lages, Eric Lyon, and Tyechia Thompson will be thinking through the role of empathy, access, and narrative in immersive technologies in conversation with advisory board member Ashley Shew, an Associate Professor in the department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech.

In this episode, Co-PIs for the ACLS Building an Institute for Empathic Immersive Narrative grant, Wallace Lages, Eric Lyon, and Tyechia Thompson will be thinking through the role of empathy, access, and narrative in immersive technologies in conversation with advisory board member Damon Davis who is an award-winning multi-media American artist, musician and filmmaker based in St. Louis, Missouri.

In the first episode of The Inside Story, Tyechia, Eric, and Wallace begin their project of creating an institute for empathic, immersive narrative by hosting the entire five-member advisory board on the Blacksburg campus of Virginia Tech for Cube Fest 2022, an annual spacial music festival held in August of that year.  During the event, our co-PIs recorded an open dialogue with the entire group, including themselves, Damon Davis, Ashley Shew, Al Evangelista, Bryan Carter, and Riham Alieldin.      

Building an Institute for Empathic, Immersive Narrative