Auschwitz & Immersive Journalism: on the verge of empathy machines XR.

Immersive Experience Design
Students learn how to create multi-sensory
experiences that fully captivate the user's potential
to feel & sense, touch & taste, see & move, to
listen & to speak, without losing grip on the user
need for understanding and guidance throughout
the experience.

I.Anne Marleen Olthof Immersive Design XR a.m.olthof@hva.nl

Women & Children walking to the gas chambers straight after arriving at Auschwitz.

Read more: https://forward.com/opinion/360454/can-auschwitz-be-a-graveyard-and-a-tourist-destination/
I. Can Auschwitz Be a Graveyard
and a Tourist Destination?
Anne Marleen Olthof Immersive Design XR a.m.olthof@hva.nl

II.Anne Marleen Olthof Immersive Design XR a.m.olthof@hva.nl

Sonderkommando 
Jewish prisoners were being forced to work in the gas chambers and indirectly contribute to the death
of many Jewish people. Therefore is their position in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp a
very sensitive topic of discussion. Please handle it with care.

Audio & Video used 
• “In this heart” (1994) - Sinéad O’Connor  
(song which represents to me the loss of humanity, love and hope. I played this song a lot after the
murder of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.) 
• “Genocide: Dario Gabbai on the Sonderkommando" - Testimonies of Sonderkommando Survivors
(Youtube) 
• “We’ll meet again” (1939) - Vera Lynn  
(she sung to the soldiers in the ﬁelds and was therefore very popular during WWII.) 
• “Donna Donna” - Joan Baez  
(originally a Yiddish language song ‘Dana Dana’ (1941), by Aaron Zeitlin (Russian Polish) & Sholom
Secunda (Ukrainian), which was sung in the play Esterke.

II. Visual History: Auschwitz  
• what distortions in the material did you see?
• what material / memory is too heavy?
• what do you want to leave out? why?

III.Anne Marleen Olthof Immersive Design XR a.m.olthof@hva.nl

http://www.alphr.com/life-culture/1007241/does-a-vr-auschwitz-simulation-cross-an-ethical-line

What is Virtual Reality
https://media.giphy.com/media/JItJ43qViwgfu/giphy.gif

http://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Manus_productphoto.jpg http://www.loadthegame.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gear_virtual_reality_headset.jpg
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/tech/img/attachement/jpg/site1/20160315/f8bc126d980d18520c7907.jpg https://cdn.uploadvr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Universal-Orlando-1024x667.jpg

Designing for Immersion

“VR invites us to break taboos
around how close we get to
people, how directly we observe
them,”
- Mark Atkin, curator of the Alternate Realities programme
at the festival.
Code of Conduct Virtual Reality
It has no code of conduct – that might have to come. And it has no rating
system – that will come.

The desensitisation of virtual reality
Concerns have been raised about a possible relationship between
virtual reality and desensitisation.
Desensitisation means that the person is no longer aﬀected by
extreme acts of behaviour such as violence and fails to show empathy
or compassion as a result. In some situations they actively
seek out this type of scenario for the adrenaline rush and
sense of power.
This has been noticed with gamers, especially those who play ﬁrst person
shooters or role playing games which involve a high degree of immersion.
https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/ethical-issues.html

The virtual Holocaust survivor: how history gained new dimensions
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/18/holocaust-survivor-hologram-pinchas-gutter-new-dimensions-history

Representations: Uncanny Valley

Virtual criminality
It is hard to imagine but what happens if someone commits a criminal act but within a
virtual environment?
The question is whether it is possible for someone to suﬀer an injury or mental distress as a
result of a violent action carried out in a virtual environment.
And if this does happen is the perpetrator punished in a similar way to someone who
commits this action in the real world?
https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/ethical-issues.html

III. Auschwitz: an ethical mineﬁeld
"We want to use VR to portray intense experiences,” says creative
director Daniele Azara. “And create something useful, educational, for
the world. Witnesses from Auschwitz are disappearing because of their
age. Books are not enough, movies are not enough – we have to be
there, and with VR we can be."
VR is an incredible tool, but

should its immersive nature be used to portray such weighty experiences?
• what do you think?

http://www.alphr.com/life-culture/1007241/does-a-vr-auschwitz-simulation-cross-an-ethical-line
http://www.alphr.com/virtual-reality/1004439/virtual-reality-helps-prosecutors-catch-last-nazi-war-criminals

Auschwitz & Immersive Journalism: on the verge of empathy machines XR.

Auschwitz & Immersive Journalism: on the verge of empathy machines XR.

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Auschwitz & Immersive Journalism: on the verge of empathy machines XR.