Lunchtime talk: making authentic connections in an empathy downturn

In a world where surprise-and-delight can be a tired phrase, empathy is often at capacity and technology disrupts and distracts - how do you reach your client or colleague, make an impression that lasts beyond the moment and compels them to return?

This talk is tailored for lunchtime corporate audiences at your place-of-work for 45 mins on one of these dates: Thu 5 Dec, Fri 6 Dec, Mon 9 Dec or Tue 10 Dec. During the talk Thomas will give insights from his fascinating and cutting-edge research exploring human connection, offer examples of his most successful works in creating authentic moments of empathy and guide the group through a smell-scape to bring to life emerging solutions.

Alumni of The Royal Shakespeare Company Digital Fellowship, Thomas Buckley is an international director, artist and creative technologist. The work is driven by a perceived empathy crisis - a prediction they feel is caused by immoral uses of technology.

In response, their practice has been developed that is highly collaborative, asking chemists, perfumers and dancers how they can use their practice to create empathy and connection. A new genre of storytelling has emerged that acknowledges the complexity of human experience, exploring how multimodal storytelling embracing smell, taste, touch and sound can shine a light on the unseen, to create meaningful impact.

The work of Thomas Buckley primarily focuses on memory and connection using the exciting potential of emergent technologies, such as Extended Reality (XR), experimenting how combining this with sensory practices like perfumery, gastronomy and mixology draws out our humanity.

Please email info@arts.je if you wish to book.