Empathy Creatures

Inside a lush garden tucked within a busy corporate building, a small, delicate virtual bird flutters. Flaming red, teetering on the edge of burnout, it paces in circles, picks up cigarette butts, and bangs its head against concrete walls... Poor creature — so sensitive, so exposed. It lives, breathes, and feels without skin, mirroring the emotional exhaustion around it.
Empathy Creatures is an emotionally intelligent immersive installation — somewhere between speculative fiction and poetic wildlife simulation. Unfolding in two parts, participants encounter an AI-powered being that senses them, talk to them, and gently invites them to slow down, listen and engage in mindful rituals of care. Like a collective Tamagotchi, the work explores emotional co-regulation, collective healing, and our shared responsibility in a fragile, interconnected world. Could a virtual creature help us reconnect with what makes us human?

I developed Empathy Creatures during a residency at the Mobiliar Lab for Analytics, building on their research into chronic workplace stress and how technologies like AI and VR can help address this systemic health issue. I envisioned a virtual being acting as an emotional barometer — a collective Tamagotchi so irresistibly cute and sensitive that people would feel naturally compelled to care for it and, in doing so, soothe themselves. When the empathic bird turns blue and glows with joy, it rewards the participant, reinforcing a virtuous loop of care, healing both the bird and its caretakers. Behind the expressive, fluffy bird lies powerful behavioral AI and real-time tech... but at heart, it’s just ancient sympathetic magic, rebooted. A next-gen witch’s trick. We are all empathic creatures.

PRODUCTION:
Mélodie Mousset - PatchXR AG
2, Rue de l’Arcadie
1347 Le Sentier, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0)787686624
E-mail: melo@patchxr.com
Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/m%C3%A9lodie-mousset-55529115b/ - LinkedIn

OTHER PRODUCTIONS:
Produced by the Mobilière Cooperative's art collection
Web: https://art.mobiliere.ch/
With the support of Pôle de création numérique (PolNum)
Web: https://polnum.ch

GREATER CHINA SALES:
AltNext – Shan He
SFP HOPE Smart Media Park, No.179 Chejia Road
201611 Songjiang District, Shanghai, China
Tel: +86 13581742030
E-mail: altnext@altstory.com
Web: https://altnext.co/
Social Media: https://xhslink.com/m/3FQXBYiJj6l – RedNote