Digital Empathy by Design: How System Constraints and Temporal Structures Act as Catalysts for Collaborative Opportunities by Y'Barbo, Beck, Mcewan, and McFadden

Digital Empathy by Design: How System Constraints and Temporal Structures Act as Catalysts for Collaborative Opportunities

By

Joshua Y’Barbo, University of the Arts London – joshuaybarbo@gmail.com / j.d.ybarbo@wimbledon.arts.ac.uk

Janna Beck, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp - p004621@ap.be 

Maraid Mcewan, University of the Arts London - m.mcewan@arts.ac.uk 

Jonathan McFadden, University of Kentucky - jonathan.mcfadden@uky.edu 

12 October 2025 

Abstract

This paper investigates how digital tools and performative methodologies foster, challenge, and transform empathy in collaborative art practice. Despite prevalent concerns that digital mediation impedes authentic connection, we argue that technological constraints can paradoxically amplify empathic engagement by making collective vulnerability and attunement operational necessities rather than emotional add-ons. We situate our inquiry in two practice-as-research projects: FRAMED—a global, open-source drawing platform emphasising real-time synchrony and shared authorship; and Emotional Creativity/Elemental Landscapes (EC/EL)—a series of workshops merging physical and digital creative processes. Drawing on interviews, case study analysis, and reflective commentary, our methods blend synchronous and asynchronous collaborative modes and examine how specific design choices (real-time visibility, no undo, layered authorship) generate distinct forms of empathetic practice. Analysis reveals that empathy in digital collaboration is less about direct emotional resonance and more about collective presence, adaptation to constraints, and mutual responsibility. FRAMED exemplifies synchronous, performative empathy grounded in immediate interplay, while EC/EL demonstrates asynchronous, reflective empathy developed through iterative, tactile-digital layering. Findings show that technological constraints heighten empathic awareness and collective agency, subvert conventional hierarchies of authorship, and enable resilience and inclusivity in creative communities. Both projects challenge assumptions that digital environments inherently diminish empathy, proposing instead that carefully structured digital platforms can cultivate deeper, systemic forms of shared vulnerability, reflection, and adaptation. For practitioners, the research highlights how integrating digital and tactile processes, as well as embracing thoughtful constraints, can foster genuine empathetic adaptation and co-creation. For institutions, our results underscore opportunities for more equitable, interdisciplinary collaboration, grounded ethical frameworks, and innovative public engagement. For policymakers and educators, we advocate for curricula and policies that treat empathy as a practical, adaptive skill—emerging within and shaped by technological and systemic conditions—thus preparing individuals and collectives for resilient, ethical participation in digital society. 

 

Acknowledgement 

In preparing this manuscript, I [Joshua Y’Barbo] made use of artificial intelligence tools for drafting, editing, and research support. I used Grammarly AI Writing Assistant (Version 1.138.0), which includes AI-powered suggestions and generative content, as well as Google Gemini for research and reference listings. Their assistance improved the manuscript’s clarity, coherence, and research breadth. All final interpretations, original ideas, and conclusions belong to the co-authors.  

Introduction

Background

The FRAMED project is an open-source collective drawing platform that originated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Over seven years of development, culminating in the initiative Drawing Across Borders, it connects creative studios across four continents. FRAMED serves as a case study in digital empathy within the realm of inspired technology. The platform's design, which incorporates real-time visibility, shared authorship, and specific constraints like the lack of an undo function, encourages participants to engage deeply with one another's creative processes. This environment fosters an "empathic alertness," where individuals cultivate sensitivity to the collaborative dynamics at play. Rather than relying on seamless interfaces, FRAMED emphasises how thoughtfully designed technological constraints can enhance shared vulnerability and collective responsibility, thus contributing to a richer understanding of empathic engagement in networked artistic collaboration. 

Emotional Creativity/Elemental Landscapes (EC/EL) by Maraid Mcewan explores how digital tools and collaborative processes can deepen empathy within creative practice. Inspired by ideas of digital empathy and collective performance, the project centres on workshops that blend physical and digital layering—using both tactile materials and digital technologies—to foster attentive, empathetic connections among participants. Through iterative, shared creation, EC/EL investigates how performance and technology can enhance personal and communal reflection, ultimately revealing new ways to build empathy and connection in both art and society.

I am an artist, researcher, and teacher specialising in the social impact of the arts, participatory art and design, institutional critique, and critical pedagogies. With two decades of experience, my work combines image-making with critical writing to explore visual allegory, personal metaphor, sustainability, and the arts. My practice includes collage, both digital and traditional printmaking, painting, drawing, and critical writing. I share these through online platforms as part of an integrated, studio-based, socially engaged, and research-driven art practice. Currently, I focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, examining how art serves as a tool for addressing corruption, distraction, personal well-being, moral improvement, and societal change while rejecting mere instrumentalism. As an educator, I emphasise themes of self-development and artistic expression, empowering individuals to reflect on their identities and roles in society. I also utilise digital marketing techniques to highlight the connection between art and the UNSDGs and engage a broader audience.

This manuscript adopts a 'mashup' approach, merging elements of case studies, interviews, and reflective analysis. The method begins with an outline of the main argument, followed by an interview section and analytical commentary. The interview part includes standardised questions shared with all participants and synthesised for efficiency. By integrating the FRAMED/Drawing Across Borders and Emotional Creativity/Elemental Landscapes (EC/EL) projects with contextualisation and proposals for future research, we aim to achieve this. 

Argument

FRAMED reveals how empathic awareness emerges as a practical necessity within constrained collaborative systems, suggesting that empathy in digital contexts operates less as emotional identification and more as attunement to collective rhythm and shared vulnerability. This argument does what the special issue wants: it investigates empathy (examining what empathy actually consists of in digital collaboration) while subverting common assumptions (that empathy requires emotional connection or face-to-face presence).

Empathy in digital collaborative art emerges not from intentional design but as an operational necessity within temporally constrained systems. This paper examines two practice-as-research projects: FRAMED/Drawing Across Borders and Emotional Creativity/Elemental Landscapes (EC/EL)—that reveal distinct modes of empathic practice shaped by different temporal structures. FRAMED exemplifies synchronous empathy through real-time networked drawing, where participants must continuously attune to others' rhythms, hesitations, and gestures as they unfold. The platform's constraints, live visibility, absence of undo functionality, and shared authorship create conditions where empathic awareness becomes pragmatically necessary for participation. By contrast, EC/EL demonstrates asynchronous empathy through iterative physical-digital layering, where participants respond to traces left by absent others across sequential rounds. The digital scanning process creates reflective pauses that allow for a considered empathic response rather than immediate negotiation. 

Both projects reveal how technological constraints generate empathic practice as participants learn to function within collaborative systems, challenging assumptions that digital mediation diminishes empathic connection. Rather than implementing empathy as a design feature, these projects discovered empathy emerging through what Beck describes as "presence and attunement", operative awareness that operative awareness that enables collective creation. By comparing synchronous attunement-empathy with asynchronous accumulative-empathy, this paper demonstrates how digital empathy operates as constellation of temporally structured practices rather than singular phenomenon, revealing implications for designing collaborative systems that require empathic attention as functional necessity.

Digital Empathy and Performative Engagement

Digital tools shape the dynamics of empathy in creative processes and mental health contexts. It highlights the dual role of digital mediation, which can foster meaningful connections and reflect authentic vulnerability, while also risking performative or superficial engagement. Drawing on studies of digital storytelling, the section discusses how technology can enable reflection, emotional attunement, and the sharing of lived experiences. At the same time, it addresses concerns around the decline of empathy linked to self-presentation in online spaces. The overarching focus is on the need for intentional strategies to cultivate genuine digital empathy and understanding through creative practice.

In both online and physical collaborative settings, performativity can catalyse self-examination and group cohesion. However, the pressure of making the process public can expose vulnerabilities and tensions, potentially complicating empathy without the trust and confidence nurtured beforehand. Digital tools create new structures for empathetic collaboration, sometimes enhancing reflection and collective sensitivity, but their performative aspects also introduce new complexities around vulnerability, trust, and the authenticity of connection.

Amplification, Subversion, and Investigation in Empathic Design 

Technological interventions reshape the cultivation of empathy in digital collaboration. Unlike purely physical settings, digital environments introduce new opportunities and challenges for connecting emotionally and understanding others. Practices like distributed creativity and performative interactions can amplify empathy, enabling participants to engage more deeply and reflectively. Yet, these same technologies also introduce barriers—such as reduced intimacy, heightened self-interest, and ethical complexities—that can limit or complicate authentic empathic exchange. Thus, empathy in digital collaboration emerges as a dynamic process shaped by both the affordances and constraints of technology.

Strategically, artists and participants can use technological interventions to question and reshape the experience of empathy. They expose both the unifying and alienating potentials of digital creation. These interventions suggest that empathy in digital art is neither guaranteed nor diminished by technology alone; somewhat, it is shaped by how creatively and thoughtfully technological affordances and limitations are integrated into collaborative practices.

Rethinking Empathic Practice in Digital Projects

Both the FRAMED project and the EC/EL workshops critically examine the capacity of empathy-driven digital practices to foster social equity, collective agency, and sustainable engagement. For example, these projects rethink empathic practice in digital art by prioritising collaborative processes, visible contributions, and intentional constraints. By blending digital and physical methods, they foster shared responsibility, vulnerability, and deeper human connection within creative communities. This democratic approach helps dismantle ego-driven authorship, instead elevating mutual support and vulnerability as foundations for group creativity. The emphasis on process over product, and on iterative, reflective modes of creation, suggests a model of engagement that is continuous rather than fixed. Technology becomes not just a tool, but a medium for enacting more equitable, resilient forms of collective creativity.

Methodology

The post-modern, dialogic methodology directly addresses the disclosure of interest by openly acknowledging and integrating the unique professional relationships between the primary author and co-authors into the research design. By employing a layered and interpretive approach, the methodology does not aim to eliminate these pre-existing connections but instead uses them as a resource for deeper analysis. The simulated interviews and comparative project reflections actively surface multiple perspectives—including those shaped by intellectual commitment and prior collaboration.

Instead of aiming for objectivity through detachment, the study emphasises transparency and reflexivity. The dual role of the co-authors as both participants and researchers is clarified and critically explored throughout the analysis. This approach guarantees that moments of convergence or bias are not hidden but are understood as part of the meaning-making process. Through continuous dialogue and the presentation of different viewpoints, the methodology maintains analytical rigour while reflecting the fluidity and complexity of collaborative work. 

 

Cross-Projects Conversation 

Foreword

This digital interview brings together academic voices from UAL, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, and the University of Kentucky to explore the intersections of digital drawing, collaborative practice, and empathy. Through the discussion, the participants reflect on innovative methods and challenges in contemporary creative education and artmaking.

Interview

Joshua Y'Barbo (JY): Let's start with the foundation of your project. What ideas and projects inspired your projects, and how did they influence your approach to digital drawing, performance, and empathy?

Janna Beck & Jonathan McFadden (JB & JM): We didn’t start FRAMED from a theory of empathy. Honestly, we never talked about it in those terms. What happened instead was that empathy, or perhaps something similar, appeared through the act of drawing together.

When everyone’s marks show up live on the same surface, people start paying attention to each other’s timing, their hesitations, even their mistakes. You sense the rhythm of others. Sometimes it creates tension, people overwrite each other, or hold back, but that’s part of the process. It’s where awareness starts to grow. The absence of an undo button requires caution. Every gesture becomes visible and irreversible, so you can’t just hide behind perfection. You have to trust that the next person will respond with the same care.

JB: For me, that’s where empathy lives, not in a concept, but in practice. It’s not about emotion as much as about presence and attunement. Collective drawing becomes a space of shared responsibility. You learn to let go of ownership and move together inside one drawing that belongs to everyone, and no one at the same time.

JB & JM: The inspiration for FRAMED stems from a blend of collective drawing practices and the theoretical underpinnings of digital empathy. The observation led us to conclude that while digital platforms often promise enhanced connectivity, they can paradoxically detract from the intimate presence that empathy necessitates. Projects that embody collaborative art practices, particularly those engaging with diverse geographic and cultural backgrounds, were pivotal in shaping our vision. The idea of "empathic catalysts" emerged from this exploration, suggesting that constraints—rather than being hindrances—could augment empathetic experiences. For instance, the Drawing Across Borders initiative provided a framework through which we could subvert traditional notions of authorship and individual agency, instead amplifying the importance of shared responsibility, dialogue, and vulnerability in creative processes.

Maraid Mcewan (MM): In my personal practice, I have been exploring collaborative layering as a way of building empathy that is slow, attentive and intensely focused. This interest extends into my work within community and socially engaged creative projects. I was invited to develop these ideas further in a series of workshops for the V&A, which drew on my earlier research into creativity, algorithms and generative technologies. My aim was to understand how the layering of collective empathy might shift depending on the groups, tools and outcomes involved.

Designing for digital empathy is, to me, an act of progressive care. It is about remembrance and belonging. It is an iterative repetition of gestures, whether through the hand, a digital tool, or the connections we make with one another. The workshops, though different in their approaches, both relied on layering through physical or digital processes in a collaborative setting. Their shared aim was to encourage participants to connect more deeply with their own inner landscapes and creativity.

I believe that creativity and empathy are interlinked; one enhances the other, and without one, the other falls behind. For these workshops, I introduced three markers of inner empathy landscapes: intuition, formation and connection, which could be layered together to reveal each participant's personal creative process. I have previously written on the nuances of creativity and craft in digital spaces. This project allowed me to test in practice what it might mean to 'layer' and to delve into our own creative depths through processes that repeat, building tacit knowledge with both human and digital hands.

The outcomes of the workshops were collaborative and shared, deliberately moving away from individual ego. They embraced the untidiness of working together and revealed something closer to the lived process of empathy building itself. This was also an exploration of inclusivity, responsibility and evolving practices in creative education and socially engaged art.

JY: How did you execute your projects? What specific materials and processes did you employ, and which methods did you favour in this context?

JB & JM: Executing FRAMED involved creating an open-source digital platform that prioritises certain technical constraints to facilitate empathy in artistic collaboration. We developed a structure that features real-time visibility of contributions, the absence of undo functionality, shared authorship, and temporal synchronicity, which collectively foster a unique relational practice. We favoured processes that promote immediacy and interactivity, encouraging participants to engage dynamically with one another in a shared creative space. By allowing every mark to be instantly visible to all participants, we encouraged a continuous dialogue where each action carried weight—essentially, every contribution mattered. This design encouraged not only individual expression but also the co-creation of a collective artwork that inherently reflected a blend of all participants' inputs and emotions. It resonated with the broader goals of social impact in the arts and addressed the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

MM: I conducted two separate workshops at the Victoria and Albert Museum, with two different groups, but both centred on layering as an empathetic act.

Workshop 1: Emotional Creativity. Emotional Creativity worked with Creative Communications MA students at the V&A. They explored intuition, formation and connection as three distinct layers using charcoal, collage and clay. The aim was to reinterpret creativity through empathy-led processes. The work was iterative and collaborative, with tasks passed around the group to be worked on by the next person. Each round was scanned and the creation of a growing set of layered 'emotions' unique to the group started to develop on screens around the workshop room. The outcome was a complex cartography of the groups’ progress and individual learnings. Interestingly, initial apprehensions about messy physical tools such as charcoal and clay seemed to dissolve once the process incorporated digital scanning.

Workshop 2: Elemental Landscapes. Elemental Landscapes was designed for a group of art and design teachers at the V&A. It focused on inner creative landscapes explored through the elements: fire, water, earth and air. Participants layered their contributions directly onto a large communal sheet of paper using drawing, collage and rubbing techniques. Every ten minutes they were asked to move places, working directly over others' marks to create a shared representation of their inner landscapes. This process generated some tension, as several participants described the layering as an invasion of personal space, something absent in the first workshop. The final work was reconstructed in the V&A's gallery space as a responsive, flowing installation that performed and interacted with its makers, embodying a layered communal landscape.

Participant feedback highlighted striking differences between physical and digital modes of layering. Digital layering appeared to encourage a deeper level of reflection, perhaps because of the slight detachment it created. (Note: the participants were different in each workshop, so difficulties in comparison arise.) I am curious if it is, in fact, the detachment from the hand and a movement to the digital hand that forces a deeper level of reflection.

We step back slightly, reset, recapture, and then review the collective development. This seems to echo much of the process of empathy: a pause for reflection and a moment of clarity needed to see a problem space from a different angle. It is encouraging to see and hear that introducing a technology in a messy and physical space has prompted deeper reflection on creative and empathetic approaches. I reflect on what it was in the physical space, devoid of technology that participants found alienating and unable to connect to. It raises a question about whether, in a hybrid world, the integration of technology can in fact strengthen empathetic engagement rather than diminish it.

JY: Reflecting on the project, what aspects worked well, and which ones encountered challenges? What were the underlying reasons for both?

JB & JM: The project's strengths lie in its ability to cultivate "empathic alertness" among participants. This heightened sensitivity required artists to actively consider the implications of their contributions, leading to an engaged and collaborative atmosphere—elements that worked effectively in fostering a sense of collective presence. Participants reported experiencing creative symbiosis, where others' actions informed their artistic impulses. However, some challenges arose from the initial discomfort with the constraints, particularly for those accustomed to traditional drawing methods that allow for erasure and individual ownership. This was a significant shift, prompting mixed reactions, as some found the learning curve to be steep. The emphasis on vulnerability and collective authorship sometimes led to apprehension, particularly among participants who struggled to adapt to the shared risks of artistic exposure. In analysing these factors, it became clear that the very constraints meant to encourage empathy could, at times, subvert individual confidence in expression.

MM: The workshops revealed the necessity of hybridity in digital empathy. Empathy is messy and imperfect; it requires multiple agents and tools to remain authentic. These experiments demonstrated how digital and physical processes can complement and enrich one another, particularly in collaborative settings and public-facing outcomes.

What remains less resolved is how emotional resonance is developed within the process itself. True empathy requires trust, and trust within creativity is closely tied to resonance. This raises a key question for me: how can processes not only encourage collaboration but also cultivate a deeper sense of personal empathy for participants?

I am convinced that we should not replace tactile human interaction but rather deepen it through the careful integration of technology. It may sound paradoxical, but in my experience this combination works.

JY: If you were to undertake the project again, what would you do differently or focus on next? 

JB & JM: In considering the next steps for FRAMED, I would explore ways to balance the desired constraints while integrating more supportive measures to enhance participants' emotional experiences. For future iterations, perhaps we could introduce preparatory workshops focusing on building confidence in collaboratively sharing and responding to vulnerabilities in artistic processes. We might also consider varying the visualisation methods of contributions to create multiple layers of engagement—allowing aspects of individual expression to coexist alongside shared creations. This would further amplify the project's impact by investigating how emotional literacy and empathetic engagement can be intertwined with artistic endeavours. This aligns closely with social impact goals and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which focus on fostering inclusivity and community development through the arts. Overall, the journey of FRAMED highlights the potential for creative technology to facilitate meaningful inquiry into the nuances of empathy within collaborative artmaking. 

MM: The next phase of this project will focus on a generative tool that can layer contributions more seamlessly than the scanner. I am also keen to experiment with these processes in outdoor landscapes, where the elemental theme can be directly embodied. In this context, technology would become an extension of the hand, mind, and process, deepening empathetic connections to the natural world.

This raises a further question: if layering itself is a form of empathy, are algorithms inherently empathetic? Generative algorithms learn through repetition, and repetition is also at the heart of empathy, craft and collaboration. Can we therefore consider empathy as already embedded within these technologies? My intention here is to then refine layering as an empathy tool. Repetition is key to learning and development and does not need to stop at the human hand; rather, it should extend through digital technologies. The hand and machine collaborate in building tactility, intuition, formation and connection over time, simply as another form of collaboration.

I am also interested in how intimacy can be scaled into collective experiences. Empathy is, at its core, a form of intimacy, with ourselves, with our communities, and with the objects and environments we engage with. I believe digital empathy has the potential to strengthen community building by lowering barriers that often prevent participants from fully engaging with their own empathetic processes. Ultimately, I hope to continue developing new ways of thinking and feeling through collaborative and hybrid design methods, with empathy woven into the very structure of creation.

Closing Remarks

This dialogue illustrates the potential of both FRAMED and Emotional Creativity/Elemental Landscapes to amplify empathy through their innovative constraints and hybrid methods, serving as powerful tools for subverting traditional artistic practices. Through the lens of a postmodern framework, we see how each project's architecture creates spaces for collective vulnerability and dialogic engagement, investigating deeper social connections and fostering relationships that align with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The synthesis of empathy, technology, and art not only challenges normative practices but also holds the promise of transformative social impact, with co-design and community involvement essential in contemporary creative practices.

 

Analysis

FRAMED is intentionally built on digital constraints—real-time visibility, no undo, and shared authorship—that require heightened self-and-other awareness. This design invites participants to experience digital empathy: each action shapes, and is shaped by, others, mirroring emotional sensitivity in collaborative spaces. The project's "continuous dialogue" and use of "empathic catalysts" embody digital empathy in action, as users adapt responsively to an evolving collective work. Simultaneously, FRAMED's performative element is evident in its live, relational interactions, where every action is witnessed and negotiated in real time. The absence of individual control and the requirement to adapt underscore a performative negotiation of empathy, fostering a shared, vulnerable space. FRAMED thus amplifies empathy by transforming technical constraints into opportunities for deeper connection, subverts notions of artistic ownership, and actively investigates empathy through collective creative adaptation and reflection.

Emotional Creativity/Elemental Landscapes (EC/EL) also exemplifies digital and performative empathy through its workshops, which marry digital scanning, iterative layering, and the passage of works between participants. In Workshop 1, the use of digital scanning and layering created a reflective, self-aware form of digital empathy, making each participant's mark visible and repeatable, and encouraging new modes of collective engagement. The development of generative tools to further layer digital contributions continues this investigation into how technology can expand empathy and interconnectedness. Performative empathy is evident in both workshops, as acts of layering and passing require trust, care, and ongoing negotiation, making empathy an active, embodied process. Movement across physical and digital spaces, while still responding to others' mark making, served as live performances of boundary negotiation and collective presence. EC/EL amplifies empathy by extending reflection and dialogue through digital tools, subverts the idea that technology fosters detachment, and functions as an ongoing inquiry into how creative boundaries blur when art, technology, and feeling converge.

Both FRAMED and EC/EL leverage digital tools and performative practices not only to facilitate but also to critically examine empathy in collaborative artmaking. Their intentional constraints and hybrid methods foreground mutual responsiveness, collective vulnerability, and the transformative power of creative exchange, offering vital new perspectives on empathy for the digital age.

Participants in Framed and Mcewan’s workshop engage in processes that amplify their empathetic experiences through digital technologies. In these projects, immersive media and responsive art serve as platforms for participants to forge connections that deepen their understanding of shared human experiences. This amplification fosters a community where empathy is not just observed but actively cultivated among participants. 

Conversely, the subversion aspect within these projects allows participant-researchers to critically examine the ethical and social implications of the technologies employed. By exposing the potential biases and harms embedded within digital tools, participants are encouraged to reflect on how these systems can undermine human empathy. This critique is essential in nurturing a more aware and empathetic audience. Moreover, the inquiry into empathy within these projects invites participants to explore the definitions and pedagogical applications of empathy itself. Through conceptual inquiry, they navigate the complexities of human and algorithmic creativity, thus expanding their understanding of empathy in a digital context. This exploration is vital for future participants, as it prepares them to engage thoughtfully with technology, fostering a generation that prioritises empathy in their interactions.

Digital Empathy

Digital tools mediate empathetic connections by shaping how individuals engage, collaborate, and share vulnerability in creative processes. For example, in research on how digital storytelling is used in mental health, De Vecchi, Kenny, Dickson-Swift and Kidd (2016, p.186) discuss how digital tools, specifically storytelling, mediate empathetic connections by shaping how individuals engage, collaborate, and share vulnerability in the creative process. Their work showed that digital storytelling enables consumers, carers and healthcare professionals to work together, fostering mutual understanding and empathy through shared lived experience (2016, p.191). They see the therapeutic benefits in the process of sharing stories, which can be healing and transformative as well as a safe and creative space for reflection, self-expression and connection. ‘The value of using digital storytelling in mental health services has been in developing empathy and unity between stakeholders to strengthen a recovery orientation in service provision’ De Vecchi, Kenny, Dickson-Swift and Kidd, 2016, p.190). 

At the same time, Konarth, O’Brien, and Hsing’s (2011, p.189) research on the changing disposition of empathy in American College students suggests that the increased use of digital tools and social media may contribute to a decline in empathy and foster performative engagement where interactions are more about self-presentation than genuine emotional connection. These constraints transformed creative interaction into a dynamic space actively practising empathy, sometimes surpassing what is possible in analogue environments by encouraging reflection and shared agency. As such, we need intentional efforts to cultivate digital empathy and meaningful engagements in online environments. By allowing individuals to share their lived experiences through personal and creative ways, we can foster empathy. As creative practitioners, we can use our multimedia tools to help storytellers express their emotions, struggles, and triumphs, which enables others to connect with their narratives on an emotional level, breaking down barriers, promoting understanding, and amplifying nuanced experiences. Thus, we can lead audiences to empathise with the storyteller.

Digital mediation can foster empathy by providing moments of detachment, allowing participants to pause, reflect, and revisit contributions—mirroring processes of emotional attunement. The slight detachment of digital work may both invite thoughtfulness and complicate feelings of presence and intimacy compared to tactile, in-person experiences. For example, Konarth, O’Brien, and Hsing (2011, p.183) mention the rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which encourage individualism and self-promotion. In terms of performative engagement, individuals focus on curating their online personas rather than making meaningful connections. They also posit that the emphasis on self-expression and competition in online spaces could further diminish empathy, as people may become more concerned with their own image and less attuned to the emotions and perspectives of others (2011, pp. 188, 189). This research suggests that online interactions lack the depth and emotional resonance needed to foster genuine empathy. 

However, De Vecchi, Kenny, Dickson-Swift and Kidd (2016, p.190) touch on ideas that align with digital mediation fostering empathy through moments of detachment, reflection, and revisiting contributions that mirror the process of emotional attunement. In addition to reflecting on lived experiences, digital storytelling provides a structured opportunity to reframe, reexamine, pause, and deeply consider their emotions, beliefs and values. They also discuss the ability to watch and share digital stories repeatedly, highlighting Alaskan youths’ use of digital stories and “hope kits” during difficult times (2016, p.189). Their work shows how digital storytelling facilitates empathy and emotional attunement through reflective interactive engagement with personal and shared narratives (2016, p.183). 

In the FRAMED project and Maraid Mcewan’s workshops, digital platforms introduced specific constraints (such as real-time visibility, removal of the “undo” function, and shared authorship) that shifted participants’ focus from individual control toward relational sensitivity and collective responsibility. FRAMED is intentionally built on digital constraints (real-time visibility, no undo, shared authorship) that require participants to be highly aware of both their own actions and those of others. This design invites participants to experience empathy through digital interaction—each mark influences and is influenced by others, mirroring the emotional sensitivity that characterises collaborative spaces. The "continuous dialogue" and "empathic catalysts" mentioned reflect the essence of digital empathy in action, as users respond and adapt to the evolving collective work. 

For Mcewan, the layering and iterative nature of digital creation prompted deeper reflection than some physical approaches, suggesting that technology can sometimes offer a more transparent lens for empathetic engagement. The integration of digital scanning and layering in MM's Workshop 1 provided a concrete example of digital empathy. The digital process created a "detachment" that encouraged self-reflection and a new kind of collective engagement, amplifying empathy by making each participant's contributions visible and iterative. The intention to develop a generative tool that layers contributions demonstrates an ongoing investigation into how digital methods can foster empathy, transcend the limitations of physical tools, and extend human connection through technology.

Performative Empathy

Performativity—the real-time, visible aspect of making—further deepens or challenges these exchanges. For example, research into Empathetic technologies discusses performativity and vulnerability in the digital space, particularly in video ethnography and self-tracking (Pink et al. 2017, pp. 372, 375). Their work discusses how capturing lives performatively can be exaggerated, while self-tracking makes everyday practices visible and analysable. They also highlight physical, digital, and empathetic vulnerabilities, which put participants at risk in both real-life and online environments (Pink et al. 2017, pp.371, 375-378). The risks and vulnerabilities faced by content makers and interested observers refer to how researchers and participants interact with and understand each other’s experiences through digital technologies.  

 

When every creative action is public and irreversible, as in FRAMED, there is a heightened awareness of others’ responses and an increased emotional risk, which can encourage empathic alertness and a sense of co-creation, but it may also provoke discomfort or inhibition, especially among those unused to such exposure. In FRAMED, the performative aspect is evident in the live, relational practice, where every action is witnessed immediately by all, creating a space where empathy is enacted in real-time. Participants must adapt, respond, and negotiate their place within a group dynamic, embodying empathy as a performative process. The discomfort and vulnerability expressed, alongside the need to support one another, demonstrate an ongoing, performative negotiation of empathic presence.

Both MM's workshops made the act of layering—physically or digitally—a performative gesture of care and attentiveness towards others' contributions. Passing work between participants required vulnerability, trust, and connection, embodying empathy as an active, performative process. In Workshop 2, the movement between physical spaces and the requirement to draw over others' work was a live performance of negotiating boundaries and trust, sometimes even leading to tensions and deeper discussions about personal and collective empathy.

Importance in Amplification, Subversion, and Investigation

Technological interventions can magnify empathic experiences by enabling new forms of collaboration and reflection that are less feasible in purely physical settings. For example, Sawyer and DeZutter (2009) discuss “distributed creativity” in collaborative processes, particularly in improvised theatre. By treating digital performativity as an active, shared process, empathetic design can amplify emotions, subvert assumptions, and investigate how design can deepen human understanding. At the same time, constraints—like the absence of an undo function—forced participants to engage thoughtfully and vulnerably, transforming limitations into opportunities for shared growth and empathy. In Wright and McCarthy’s (2008, p. 637) research, they explored the role of technology in fostering empathy through cultural probes, narrative approaches, and experience prototypes, which created opportunities for designers to understand user experiences, emotions, and perspectives in innovative and mediated ways. They infer that empathy is a dialogical and relational process, where understanding the user involves creative and interpretive engagement rather than mere observation or measurement (Wright & McCarthy, 2008, p. 639). 

However, technology can also challenge empathic exchange. The digital environment’s detachment can either enable reflective distance or reduce feelings of intimacy and tactile presence, sometimes complicating the fostering of empathy. For example, research on how technology challenges empathetic exchange refers to the “media-empathy paradox”, which highlights the irony that digital media, designed to facilitate social connection, may reduce connective capacities (Guan et al., 2019, p.148). Additionally, social media has shown the cultivation of self-oriented traits, such as narcissism and self-interest, which may hinder empathy in digital spaces (Guan et al., 2019, pp.148-149). Finally, they also concluded that the digital environment includes affordances like controllable self-presentation, self-interest, and a focus on fame. These factors potentially complicate the development of empathy within digital spaces, as the ability to control how one is perceived online can lead to subversion. This hyper individualism also uses decreased intimacy and self-interest, which limits empathy. Visibility in these spaces carries irony with it; digital spaces encourage self-promotion and fame-orientation. While digital performativity offers valuable opportunities for subversion, the same technology simultaneously creates challenges that reduce empathy and favour self-interest, creating tension with the transformative potential of subversion in digital spaces. 

The performative nature of digital collaboration—where processes are visible and irreversible—may heighten emotional stakes, leading to both deeper engagement and increased apprehension. For example,  Pink et al (2017, pp.371-372, 374-376, 378), discuss the performative nature of digital collaboration through video ethnography, particularly using wearable devices like GoPro camera, making participants’ actions and visible in real-time, giving participants an active role, providing researchers with an immersive experience with heighten emotional stakes that include deeper engagement and increased apprehension. Joinson’s work on self-disclosure in computer-mediated communication (2001), discovered that visual anonymity and heightened private self-awareness contributed to increased self-disclosure, which suggests that digital environments can foster a sense of intimacy and authenticity by encouraging individuals to share more personal information, potentially building trust in online interactions. Therefore, the performative and visible nature of digital collaborations creates a dynamic of heightened emotional stakes. With visibility and irreversibility deepened, it fosters empathy and intimacy while increasing apprehension due to the ethical and emotional stakes. 

In the FRAMED project, digital platforms fostered collective authorship and real-time visibility, making every participant’s contribution immediately impactful and visible to all. This structure prompted deeper awareness of others and heightened emotional connectivity, nurturing what the authors call “empathic alertness.” FRAMED amplifies empathy by turning technical constraints (no undo, collective authorship) into opportunities for deeper connection and attentiveness, making every individual contribution both visible and significant. For example, 

MM's workshops used Digital tools, which didn't replace the human element but extended it, amplifying participants' capacity for reflection and dialogue, as you noted with the enhanced reflective responses in digital modes. The project subverted the idea that technology distances us by instead showing that it can support more profound empathy and collective creativity, especially when juxtaposed with uncomfortable responses to purely physical, tactile methods. The workshops themselves were live investigations into how digital and physical layering impact empathy, and what happens when boundaries between self and collective, hand and technology, are blurred. Your intention to refine and explore generative tools furthers this investigative spirit.

However, some participants initially found digital constraints uncomfortable, associating them with a loss of personal agency or increased exposure to judgment. Projects like FRAMED and Maraid Mcewan’s workshops use technology to test the boundaries between self and collective, analogue and digital, comfort and creative risk. The FRAMED project highlights the potential for digital art platforms to align with global social goals such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Mcewan’s workshops further explore how hybrid (digital and physical) practices can break down barriers to participation, encouraging diverse communities to engage in empathetic creative processes.

Summary of Findings

To summarise, empathy in digital collaborative art is not an emotional add-on but a functional necessity shaped by system constraints and temporal structures, challenging the idea that empathy relies on direct emotional connection or physical presence. Empathy emerges in digital art projects such as FRAMED and EC/EL through participation in constrained, collaborative systems. FRAMED demonstrates synchronous empathy, where participants must attune to each other in real-time due to live feedback and the absence of an undo option. EC/EL exemplifies asynchronous empathy, developing as participants respond to others’ traces over time. Technological limits (timing, visibility, tools) make empathic awareness vital for successful collaboration. These findings dispute the assumption that digital mediation reduces empathy, showing instead that empathy arises from pragmatic adaptation and shared vulnerability in collective art making.

By dismantling traditional hierarchies of individual authorship and prioritising shared responsibility, the project foregrounds inclusivity and a more equitable distribution of creative agency. According to research into team science, ‘[…] an organizational approach that aims to facilitate engagement within interdisciplinary teams to support team collaboration and mitigate conflict through communication […]’, researchers ‘[…] used a team science approach to develop an equitable and inclusive authorship process for our large multi-disciplinary, multi-site research project’ (Lewis et al. 2023). They explicitly organised their guidelines around the values of equity and inclusion. Their process aimed to distribute lead authorship opportunities equitably and foster co-author inclusion, inherently shifting the focus to the collective process and responsibility rather than a rigid hierarchy. Rethinking empathetic practice in digital projects means shifting from token consultation to genuine co-authorship and agency, making room for all voices to be heard and recognised. 

Constraints such as real-time visibility and shared authorship transform individual risks into collective growth, nurturing an environment where every contribution is valued. For example, in “Seeing” the Difference: The Importance of Visibility and Action as a Mark of “Authenticity” in Co-production, Cooke et al. (2016) emphasise the role of visibility and authentic collaboration in co-production processes. Their research demonstrates that making contributions visible through interactive design, prototyping, and tangible outputs fosters meaningful collaboration and shared ownership among diverse stakeholders, reinforcing the value of inclusivity. However, real-time visibility and shared authorship can sometimes blur individual accountability, increase performance pressure, and dilute focus on specific risks or innovations, potentially leading to groupthink or overlooked contributions. Nonetheless, working collectively to overcome individual limitations and co-creating supports a democratic and collaborative environment. Applying these principles to digital projects involves designing systems where empathy is not just a personal trait, but a core component structured around valuing transparency, open collaboration, and clearly respecting all voices.

Both projects emphasise how technological design can redistribute creative control, inviting all participants to take ownership of the process and outcome. Both projects see empathy not as a one-off event but as a skill cultivated over time—a practice that can sustain itself through community, repetition, and thoughtful technological integration. Mcewan’s reflections on repeating gestures and FRAMED’s exploration of relational constraints both point to the emergence of empathy as a durable and evolving element of collaborative art. The projects demonstrate that purposefully designed digital technology, when used, can enact systemic change—promoting social justice, enhancing group agency, and developing new models for inclusive, sustained participation —by fostering empathy.

FRAMED leverages digital tools and performative practices not only to facilitate but also to critically examine empathy in collaborative artmaking. For example, Real-time visibility of contributions encourages mutual responsiveness (digital/performance empathy); the absence of an undo feature prompts careful consideration, amplifying empathic alertness (amplification/investigation). Shared authorship and collective exposure subvert individual artistic autonomy (subversion).

Several aspects of (EC/EL) directly meet the criteria of Digital and Performative Empathy, and have significance in amplification, subversion, and investigation. For example, the act of digital layering, especially the scanning and reiteration in Workshop 1, is a standout example. It captures performative empathy (gestural, collaborative) and digital empathy (mediated, reflective distance), actively investigating the hybrid space where technology and feeling intersect—and sometimes subvert expectations about connection. 

Interpretation and Future Opportunities

This section outlines directions for future research and practice for practitioners, institutions, and policymakers/educators. It is rooted in the understanding that empathy in digital collaborative art is not merely an emotional supplement but a functional adaptation driven by system constraints and temporal dynamics. By examining projects like FRAMED and EC/EL, which reveal how empathy is shaped through synchronous and asynchronous participation, we challenge the assumption that direct emotional connection or physical proximity is necessary for empathic engagement. Instead, these insights open new avenues for cultivating practical, adaptive empathy through collaborative structures—guiding the development of more inclusive, resilient, and responsive practices across sectors.

For Practitioners

Tactile Connections 

Building on the argument that empathy in digital collaborative art is a functional necessity shaped by system constraints rather than by direct presence or emotion, future research could explore how tactile or multi-sensory installations translate these digital mechanisms into physical contexts. Artists and designers might investigate whether system-imposed limitations—like live feedback, limited reversibility, or delayed interaction—can be mirrored in physical, collaborative spaces to foster empathic adaptation. Studying how participants collectively adjust to such constraints can provide practitioners with insights into designing installations that support practical, process-based empathy, rather than relying solely on emotional cues or proximity.

Designing for Reciprocity

Empathy’s emergence within temporally structured digital collaboration suggests new pathways for exploring reciprocal dynamics between technology, people, and the environment. Participatory workshops inspired by projects like FRAMED and EC/EL could test how synchronous and asynchronous constraints influence group dynamics, creative responsibility, and mutual understanding, even when direct connection is absent. Healthcare, communications, and design researchers may focus on the role of system timing, feedback mechanisms, and role assignment in cultivating a pragmatic empathy, ultimately informing best practices for structuring collaborative projects that prioritise shared adaptation and respect for others’ contributions.

Counter Narratives 

The claim that digital mediation fosters, rather than diminishes, empathy provides a compelling counter-narrative to assumptions about technology’s isolating nature. Practitioners can focus their research on producing and analysing stories or visual representations that challenge the dichotomy of physical versus digital empathy, highlighting examples where technological constraints become catalysts for shared vulnerability and attunement. By visualising complex collaborative processes or transforming data on participation patterns into accessible narratives and infographics, designers and communicators can shed light on how digital art practices nurture a new form of empathy, grounded in adaptation and collective effort rather than mere physical presence.

For Institutions

Enhanced Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

Empathy is not an optional emotional layer, but a functional requirement mediated and shaped by system constraints. In digital collaborative art projects like FRAMED and EC/EL, empathy arises because participants must adapt to technological limitations, regardless of discipline. The agency we find within these confines showcases how system-induced empathy enables collaboration between fields as varied as computer science and the arts, since all must navigate these pragmatic constraints together, leading to genuinely interdisciplinary teamwork.

Stronger Ethical Frameworks

Because empathy in digital spaces emerges from participants’ attunement to systemic and temporal conditions (e.g., live feedback, asynchronous traces), institutions can benefit by embedding this understanding into ethical review processes. Framing empathy as practical attunement to others’ experiences (rather than sentiment) encourages ethical guidelines that give weight to the real, system-mediated experiences and vulnerabilities encountered during digital collaboration.

Innovative Public Engagement

Recognising empathy as a system-driven necessity empowers institutions to create public engagement models that respond to digital users’ actual behaviours and constraints. Since projects like FRAMED (synchronous collaboration) and EC/EL (asynchronous) involve adapting to collective limitations, institutions can design feedback and participation systems that acknowledge and leverage users’ adaptive, empathic behaviours, reaching broader and more diverse audiences.

Challenging Preconceptions

The argument for digital performative empathy and its analysis challenges the idea that empathy needs physical presence. By demonstrating that meaningful empathy arises from managing system limits and timing structures (as in FRAMED and EC/EL), institutions can challenge outdated beliefs about digital disconnection, thereby supporting more modern, evidence-based teaching and research methods.

Model for Reciprocal Design

Understanding empathy as an adaptive, functional process—necessitated and shaped by technological limits—offers a model for reciprocal, user-responsive design. Institutions can apply this model to curricula, funding, and tool development, ensuring design processes that foster emergent empathy through participatory constraints, thus making collaboration and learning more inclusive and effective.

For Policymakers and Educators

Curriculum Integration

Integrating interdisciplinary collaboration, ethical review, and public engagement in education aligns with the insight that empathy—especially in digital art contexts—is a learned, practical skill, not merely emotional resonance. By designing curricula that mimic the system constraints and temporal structures of projects like FRAMED (synchronous, real-time feedback, no undo) or EC/EL (asynchronous, indirect interaction), institutions foster the development of empathic skills essential for modern collaboration. Students learn to adapt their communication and creative responses to the limits of digital environments, preparing them for the complexities of teamwork and ethical decision-making both in education and in their future careers.

Regulating for Systems-Level Impact

Policies that prioritise interdisciplinary and ethical oversight mirror the systemic conditions that shape empathy in digital collaborative art. Just as in FRAMED, where live feedback necessitates attunement, regulations can design systems that encourage real-time, responsibility-sharing among stakeholders. Likewise, introducing public engagement and ethical review mechanisms into policy reflects the asynchronous, trace-based connections explored in EC/EL, acknowledging that empathy can thrive without direct contact. This shift challenges the notion that regulation is cold or impersonal; instead, systemic constraints and structures can promote empathic collaboration, encouraging responsible and innovative outcomes.

Fostering Digital and Ecological Resilience

The necessity of empathy for successful digital collaboration—revealed by the FRAMED and EC/EL projects—parallels the institutional goal of building resilience. By proactively incorporating ethical review and public participation, institutions replicate the supportive systems that allow empathy to emerge even in digitally mediated, asynchronous, or constrained environments. This emerging empathy, rooted in institutional underpinnings, not only ensures that solutions are inclusive and sustainable but also supports collective adaptation and resilience, crucial in the face of disruption. Empathic awareness, shaped by technological and systemic constraints, thus underpins resilient institutional practices and inclusive decision-making. Recognising empathy as an adaptive, functional response to system constraints, not a by-product of physical presence, strengthens each institutional opportunity. Educational, regulatory, and resilience strategies model and cultivate the pragmatic empathy necessary for effective collaboration and responsible innovation in technologically mediated contexts.

 

Disclosure of Interest

The authors declare that they have no financial interests or personal financial relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper. The work was carried out as part of their salaried academic employment at their respective institutions, including CCW, University of the Arts London, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, and University of Kentucky.  

The primary author, Joshua Y’Barbo, conducted interviews with the co-authors, whose reflections form the material for this paper. This pre-existing professional relationship and their dual role as co-researchers and research participants/reflectors could be perceived as a non-financial conflict of interest (intellectual commitment). This relationship is explicitly recognised and addressed through a layered, interpretive, and dialogic analysis that emphasises complexity, multiple perspectives, and the co-construction of meaning to maintain objectivity. By co-constructing meaning and remaining attentive to the ethical implications of these relationships, the study upholds integrity and rigour even in the presence of non-financial conflicts of interest.

The interviews and reflective analysis presented in this research received no funding. 

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