Talking to … Mélodie Mousset

What is EMPATHY CREATURES about? 

EMPATHY CREATURES is about collective responsibility and the act of caring. 
The immersive installation combines VR and real-time simulation. It centers around a AI-driven virtual bird that responds to the emotional climate around it. The bird reflects how we care or fail to care for ourselves and for each other. Participants can interact with it inside a scenographic environment that mirrors both corporate burnout and emotional resilience. I like to describe it as a sort of collective Tamagotchi. 

In a collective experience, we can observe this little bird in the magical garden of a brutalist head office building. By seeing its stressful daily life, we collectively acknowledge and feel responsible for its wellbeing. In an intimate VR experience, we can interact one-to-one with the bird through rituals by relaxing and grounding ourselves. EMPATHY CREATURES is a social experience of empathy. We are not alone; we all work together to balance individual and society. 

How did you come across this topic? 

I developed this project during my artist residency at the Mobiliar Lab for Analytics in Switzerland. I was inspired by their research of digital stress at the workplace, and how emerging technologies such as AI and VR could help tackle these major societal issues. 
I imagined a virtual creature so sensitive to our collective stress that it acts as a living sensor – a mirror of our emotional exhaustion as a society. The bird’s visual aspect and behaviour evolve depending on its emotional state and the VR experience enables us to do the same.  
The bird has since then even become the mascot of the Lab scientists. 

What fascinates you about working with XR?  

For me this medium is almost like working with human material: with perception, emotion, the brain, and with your belief of what’s real or what’s not. 

I have always been fascinated by the liminal space between science and magic belief. Virtual reality with its performative/transformative aspect is an incredible medium for that. With VR in the way I use it, I’m not showing a final recording of anything. What I love about the immersive experience is that you never know what is happening, almost like watching a documentary. I set parameters, define new frontiers and let the others have the experience. I like to describe myself as a “digital witch” using sympathetic magic.  

What is it like to work as an VR artist in Switzerland? 

There are really amazing projects from Switzerland, but creators in the immersive field still face many challenges. There are efforts to give visibility and provide support, for example from GIFF, PolNum, Virtual Switzerland, and SWISS FILM’s XR support. But immersive media is hard to define and requires high production costs. As a hybrid fusion of narration, performance, art and games, it’s challenging for institutions to support. 

I am grateful that my project received support, but it was not easy. Venice is a real opportunity to launch Swiss projects on the global stage! 

EMPATHY CREATURES was produced by the Mobiliar Art Collection, with support of the Pôle de création numérique.
The presentation in Venice was supported by SWISS FILMS, Istituto Svizzero in Rome, the Municipality of Le Chenit, Pro Helvetia, the Cantons of Vaud and Zurich.