Realizing Empathy

Do you think that art is self-indulgent and has no function? Or that craft is outdated? That's what the author thought. Especially so as a designer, given that most have been distancing themselves from artists and craftsmen since the industrial revolution. But after spending 4 years exploring the very disciplines of craft as well as the visual and performing arts, the author came to the realization that he had completely misunderstood the two disciplines. Realizing Empathy: An Inquiry Into the Meaning of Making, is a book that analyzes and reflects on the author's embodied research into the disciplines of craft as well as the visual and performing arts, to tell the story of how realizing empathy is the heart of the creative process we call 'making.' Through this exploration, the author also blends together his experiences in computer science and human-centered design to investigate both the ethics of our relationship to computer technology as well as the necessary and sufficient conditions required for facilitating empathic conversations in our human-to-human as well as human-to-machine interactions.