The Ethics of Mislocalized Selfhood: Proprioceptive Drifting Towards the Virtual Other

In Psychology, 'proprioceptive drift' is a term that originates from the rubber hand illusion paradigm to describe the 'relative displacement of the perceived location of one's own hand toward the location of the rubber hand' (Wold et al, 2014). Correspondingly, drift measurements in science are used as a means of rating the intensity of a body-ownership illusion via which a participant in a controlled experiment perceives that an extracorporeal appendage, or virtual whole-body avatar is incorporated as part of one's own body schema. In this research article, I will examine an applied performance that utilises BeAnotherLab's The Machine to Be Another - a system that produces a VR body illusion intended to increase empathy and reduce proximity between an immersant's real body and that of a volunteer refugee counterpart. When scientifically-tested body illusions cross a paradigmatic boundary to be framed as immersive art, what are the ethical implications? Furthermore, are these kinds of virtual proprioceptive transactions across different kinds of social and political boundaries symptomatic of radical empathic acts, or a capitalistic desire for the acquisition of another's experiences by virtual means?