Designing for Empathy

Elif M. Gokcigdem, Ph.D., is the founder of Empathy-Building Through Museums Initiative. She is an innovative thought leader, a historian of Islamic art, and a museums scholar who is committed to creating fertile grounds of empathy through informal learning platforms to inspire positive behavior change, caring mindsets, and compassionate worldviews that value all of humanity and the planet. Gokcigdem is the author of two visionary books on empathy-building: Fostering Empathy Through Museums (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and Designing for Empathy: Perspectives on the Museum Experience (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). She is the chief curator and co-chair of the world’s first museums and empathy summit titled: “Fostering Universal Ethics and Compassion Through Museums with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama,” which took place in October-November, 2018 in Dharamsala, India.

• ForewordThe Venerable Tenzin PriyadarshiAcknowledgementsPrefaceElif M. GokcigdemIntroductionZorana IvcevicPart IThe Object of Our Empathy: How Do We Perceive the Other?Chapter 1: The HeartThe Heart’s Knowledge Will Never DecayDario RobletoChapter 2: The BrainLiving Narratives: Neurobiology of EmpathyErik JahnerChapter 3: Conscious ExperienceEmpathic Space and Shared Consciousness: Museums and the Application of the Spread Mind TheoryRiccardo ManzottiChapter 4: The WorldviewEmpathy, Narcissism, and Visual Arts EngagementSara KonrathChapter 5: Augmented RealityAugmenting Empathy and Decolonizing AR/VR Mediums: How Do We Reimagine Augmented and Virtual Reality Experiences?Amir Baradaran and Isolde BrielmaierPart IIThe Alchemy of Empathy: Ingredients of Transformative Perspective ChangeChapter 6: IntentionalityDiscovering the Power of Art in Forging Empathic ConnectionsJon CarfagnoChapter 7: IntersectionalityBuilding Transformative Empathetic Experiences to Talk About RACEYolanda Moses and Joanne Jones-RizziChapter 8: CuriositySocial Inquiry Exhibits: Fostering Social Learning in MuseumsThomas Rockwell, Joshua Gutwill, Heike Winterheld, and Shawn LaniChapter 9: PlayBuilding a Culture for Kindness Through Collaborative DesignLisa Brahms and Anne FullenkampChapter 10: VulnerabilityFrom I to Thou: Transformation Through Traumatic EventsAndreas HeineckeChapter 11: Contemplation & NuanceFound in TranslationMohamed ZakariyaChapter 12: ProximityDesigning for Place and People at the Border of Freedom: Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage CenterSeth Frankel Chapter 13: StorytellingEmpathy in Environmental Communications: Why People Matter for Saving NatureAnastasia Khoo, Jamey Anderson, and Conservation InternationalChapter 14: SynchronicityTap Dancing Towards Empathic CommunitiesAndrew NemrChapter 15: Awe & WonderDesigning for Wonder: Losing Your Self at the MuseumNicholas BellChapter 16: Collective JourneyingReligious Pilgrimage and Sacred Relics as Empathy-BuildersAri Gordon and Menachem WeckerChapter 17: Breaking BreadBreaking Bread and Building Bridges: Repairing Ruptures in Our CommunitiesReverend Jennifer Bailey, Lennon Flowers, Emily May, and The People’s SupperChapter 18: Optimism & HopeOptimism to Action: One Smithsonian, the Conservation Commons and the Earth Optimism InitiativeCatherine ChristenPart IIIThe Scope and the Spectrum of Empathy: Empathy as a Cross-Industrial Shared Value, and Its Potential for People and the PlanetChapter 19: Ethics & ValuesModeling Decency, Sir!Elaine Heumann GurianChapter 20: Our Planet & the EnvironmentThe Anthropocene as Our ConscienceEmlyn KosterChapter 21: Education & EntrepreneurshipEducating for Empathy: Global Lessons from Schools and Social EntrepreneursDana MeklerChapter 22: Innovation & DesignDesigning Empathy into Machines: Lessons Learned from Designing Interactions for Autonomous VehiclesKursat OzencChapter 23: Societal ProgressMuseums as Incubators of Innovation and Social ImpactKarleen Gardner

Designing for Empathy: Perspectives on theMuseum Experienceis a timely and intriguing collection of essays that argues for museums to dedicate themselves to the creation of experiences which promote empathy and affective concern as a way to both strengthen society and heal our broken social fabric. . . . There is much to be admired in Gokcigdem’s latest contribution to discussions about the role of empathy in museums. Readers will find the collection’s efforts to identify the core characteristics of empathy-based exhibit design to be especially. . . Some readers may also balk at Gokcigdem’s suggestion that there is a single essence, a oneness, that unites the universe, and that museums can help to reveal the essential interconnectedness between humanity and the planet on which we live. But in a time of enormous social tension, political turmoil, and public unrest, perhaps such lofty aspirations are exactly what we need.