Empathy as Resistance is a project which explores how empathy can be employed for constructive, direct political and social action. We are not interested in a particular political option as a reason for action (however it might have political implications at the end). On this basis we want to establish an open working group which will meet five times in 2017 for research­-based programmes.

Each meeting of EaR will take a distinct, unique shape (possibly a workshop, lecture, action, collaborative creation or seminar, but ideally some mixture of all of these). While all activities will be open to the general public to attend, it is desired that a core group will participate in all of the sessions, building relationships with each other to establish cumulative knowledge.

EaR seeks facilitators from a wide spectrum of thought. In December 2016, Pixelache will open a call for proposals, which can be submitted online. Facilitators can be from abroad, Finland, Helsinki or even Pixelache itself, depending on the idea.

The content is kept open, to be an interpretation of the title of the project itsel -- ­ empathy as resistance --­ with each facilitator designing a practical and/or personal approach to it.

During or near the 2017 festival, there will be a larger session of EaR, integrated into the festival with several public interactions points, which will function as a presentation of the year’s research so far and an exploration of possible future avenues.