Seung Chan Lim, better known as
Slim, is the director for project Realizing Empathy. Realizing Empathy is
a project that asks what it means to make something, how it works as a
process, and why it matters to our lives. It explores these questions
across disciplines such as fine arts, performing arts, design, science,
and engineering.
Slim is also author of,
Realizing Empathy:
An Inquiry Into the Meaning of Making. He says,
"As a designer, I must find ways to harness the most complex
of technologies into an experience that is not only pleasant, but also
empowering and meaningful. As an engineer, I must make sure that I can not
only talk the above talk, but also walk the above walk. As a strategist, I
must make sure that the talk is not only talked, but heard, and the walk is
not only walked, but seen.... What I have learned from this experience is that making things is
analogous to engaging in an empathic conversation with another person."
Sub Conference: Human Centered Design
The Connections Between Empathy And Creativity: An Interview With Seung
Chan Lim From RealizingEmpathy.com
Seung Chan – also known as Slim – is a Computer Scientist
and Manager by training, Designer by trade and, he says, “Performer by
birth.” Just to give you an idea of his varied and creative background
and current interests… prior to embarking on the Realizing Empathy
project, Slim served as the Assistant Director of Engineering and Senior
Software Design Engineer at MAYA Design, and was also an independent DJ,
Music Producer and Performance Director by night. Slim says that when
he’s not fighting for the right to empathize and to be empathized, he is
acting, directing, dancing, composing, programming, or woodworking.
This panel of guest artists from the fields of dance, music, theater,
and design, shared their personal insights of how empathy plays a vital
part in their various art forms. The artists also outlined how they
would make empathy front and center in our culture through their art
form.
A thoughtful examination of empathy in life and in the context of design
reveals that empathy is not merely about receiving, but also about
giving.
"It’s generally a good idea to be weary of
buzzwords. Empathy is no exception.
My first encounter with the word was more than 10 years ago. I was a few
years out of college and a close friend was suffering from bipolar
depression. Out of a sincere desire to help, I sought out a
psychiatrist.
At our first meeting, the psychiatrist recommended I empathize with my
friend. I asked her how, and she requested that I first learn to listen.
“Listen?” I asked myself. “I surely know how to do that already!” I
thought to myself."
This panel of guest artists
from the fields of dance, music, theater, and design, shared their
personal insights of how empathy plays a vital part in their
various art forms. The artists also outlined how they would make
empathy front and center in our culture through their art form.
"This workshop is for a group of 12 pre-selected Brown and RISD students.
The goal of the workshop is to create not only a greater awareness of the
empathic conversation between the maker and the material they are making
with, but also how the same principles of empathic conversation can be
translated and applied to human relationships in general, to foster
greater opportunities for constructive collaborations and cooperation
across cultures and disciplines."
Post-Workshop Panel on "Making as Empathic Conversation""
Sponsored by the Creative Art Council at Brown University,
students and instructors involved in the 2-day workshop on "Making as
Empathic Conversation" came together to reflect on the workshop. "
"A talk given at University of Toronto Rotman School of Management on
how realizing empathy can guide the learning and the creative process."
he has Intense
desire to judge (demean) new things - learned how wrong he was
put down
design
put down art
learned more
how empathy is at the core of creativity is realizing empathy
3 topics
empathy
itself
relationship
of empathy and learning (usually used for morality)
relationship
of empathy and creativity
Bipolar
depression friend story
good problem
solver but bad at empathy
you don't
understand
framed as
her fault - she is the problem, I'm problem solver.
Started
reflecting back to her
she thanked
me
What is
empathy?
with story
started with sympathy
moved to
empathy. started embodying and embodying my friend
how it is
that we go from not empathy (A) to empathy (B)
realizing
empathy is the process of going from point A to B
Empathy and
Learning
with no
effort - ie movie,
with effort
-
conflict -
awareness, care, ability
learn a
new choice
see what
is in front of you
3 stages or
realizing empathy
association - if new problem want to solve it or judge
it
conversation - instead have conversation about paradoxes
biassociation - a fusion - core of creativity
innovation -
is new and meaningful to the context it is introduced to
can't
innovate until you realize empathy
innovate
causes: surprises and gratitude
Empathy and
the creative process
conversation
- empathic makes it smoother
Respecting
(knowing there are different perspectives)
Listening
shared
meaning
brain
associations - making new associations - making new meaning
Considering - (experiencing the other)
Acting -
sincerely honest - the experience is all yours. Shared common
humanity( Imagine-self)
resilient
curiosity - need it to realize empathy.
Empathy is
reciprocal - (not selfish or altruistic) is a most beautiful loop
Q and A
Realizing
Empathy: The Empathy Workshop - October 2013
Our speaker - Rhode Island based Seung Chan Lim, a Digital Creative
Professional for over 10 years - presented some of the findings from his
book called "Realizing Empathy: An Inquiry Into the Meaning of Making".
He elaborated on his notion that a creative process is essentially a
process of realizing empathy.
UI Community
Prejudices
Empathy is core of creative process
Listens to a depressed friend
19:00 Dan Batson's Definition of
empathy
an explanatory principle
different definitions
Realizing Empathy
automatic
deliberate
Seeing different perspectives
Dissonance - Consonance - Resonance
Reflecting what you hear
Once you hear the other, action can
happen - creativity
Empathy is an explanatory principle for our potential to
experience an event where we feel as if we are embodying or
understanding the experience of an other and its related meanings from
the context and vantage point of that other.