￩ RSA Shorts: “The Power of Empathy”

10 December 2013 in Animation

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (the RSA) is an enlightenment organisation committed to finding innovative practical solutions to today’s social challenges. Through its ideas, research and 27,000-strong Fellowship it seeks to understand and enhance human capability so we can close the gap between today’s reality and people’s hopes for a better world.

As part of that mission, the RSA public events programme has launched RSA Shorts. This new series provides a snapshot of a big idea, blending voices from the RSA public events programme and the creative talents of illustrators and animators from around the world. It responds to the ever-increasing need for new ideas and inspiration in our busy lives and acts as a shot of ‘mental espresso’ to awaken the curiosity in all of us.

‘The Power Of Empathy’, directed and animated by Superdoodle’s co-founder Katy Davis.

The audio of this RSA short is of Dr Brené Brown who spoke at the RSA on The Power of Vulnerability. She talks about the difference between sympathy and empathy and argues that to be truly empathetic you have to be vulnerable by connecting with someone’s pain in yourself.

The animation was created by illustrating on paper and then using After Effects to composite elements together.

Below are some stills from the animation and a photograph of some of Katy’s illustrations: The animation was launched today (10/12/13) at midday and has already accumulated over 25,000 views on The RSA’s Youtube channel in 12 hours. I’m thrilled that it’s received such a positive response, and that Brene is pleased too!