The Machine to be Another

The Machine to be Another is an embodied virtual reality system that facilitates a compelling experience of body exchange. It is based on a phenomenon called “body transfer illusion” in the neuroscientific literature. Be Another Lab started prototyping in 2012 to make this experience accessible to the public. Using techniques from virtual reality, cognitive science, and performance. The Machine to be Another allows you to see the world through the eyes and body of another person while moving and interacting by touching objects and other people present in a duplicated space.

The Machine to be Another is a unique system and the main invention of the Be Another Lab collective. It results from long-term research into the possibility of enhancing active perspective-taking and empathic concern. Since 2014, the collective used the Machine to be Another to address the problems of bias towards certain groups. He is active in the world of art and film interested in new technologies, subjectivities, perception, and narrativity. He collaborates with scientists to better understand the phenomenon of embodiment. He works with civil rights activists in contexts where migration, mediation, conflict resolution, care, a therapeutic extension of the body, and intergenerational bonding are of primary concern.

BeAnotherLab is an interdisciplinary research lab dedicated to exploring the relationship between identity and empathy. They develop immersive technology systems to generate new narrative modalities and experiment with the perception of the other and the self. The lab works at the intersection between art, science, and technology, questioning the hierarchy between these different ways of generating knowledge and seeing them as complementary and intertwined.

BeAnotherLab consists of members based in São Paulo, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam, Zurich, and New York, with the birthplace of the project being Barcelona, the favourite place of many of its members and where it is registered as a non-profit association. The collective’s work is licensed under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. Specialties covered within the collective include cognitive science and psychology, interactive systems design, digital art, computer science, cultural management, philosophy, as well as conflict resolution.