Empathy Box

"It is good for me that I was afflicted" (Psalm 119, 71)

Empathy Box© is a low voltage generator. It can be used by a group of persons to get an electric shock, just by adjusting the amount of electric discharge. Empathy Box© displays two steel spheres on the main box.
In order to be connected to the machine, two or more persons must hold their hands and make a chain. The two at the end of the chain must touch the spheres. The bodies will receive an electric discharge of about 12000 volts, that will start from the spheres and reach everyone who is in the chain. During every electric discharge, the Empathy Box will make a white noise and the LEDs below the display will turn on.

"As often as their skins are wholly burned, we shall give them in exchange other skins" (Koran 4:56)

Empathy Box© is a machine bringing you up to feel empathy. The painful electric discharges are shared by the believers connected to each other and to the box. Everyone of them feels the same pain, thus everyone has the same experience.
Pain is the only common aspect of every religion. It is used for spreading any kind of dogma, it goes beyond the differences between the religious traditions and directly into the most intimate sphere of a human being.

"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them" (Gospel of Matthew 18, 20)

Empathy Box© tries to open a breach into new generations providing a technological tool for introducing religious life in the daily habits. It can be used in a very short time, and its consumption can easily fit in a daily schedule. Aesthetically it looks like a stylish furniture, made of several materials like wood and steel, solid and comfortable at the same time. It gives physical, strong sensations. It is drawn up for those who feel that the contact with their own soul is vanishing, and need to find the way for spirituality. It is supposed to be used in a group, to encourage the social share of religious practices.
If the hi-tech market needs consumers constantly worshipping their products, then there is no reason for religions not to do the same.

"An empathy box it's an extension of your body; it's the way you touch other humans, it's the way you stop being alone" (Philip K. Dick, 'Do androids dream of electric sheep?')

Press Kit

credits
tecnical setup: ing. Mirko Mattioli
video: Produzioni Amenic
depliants: Filippo Cuttica