Interacting with Empathy: Migrant Narrative in the Context of Mobile Apps

This paper explores two mobile app narratives that deal with the issue of
perilous irregular migration, Survival (2017, Omnium Lab) and Bury me, my love
(2017, The Pixel Hunt/Figs/Arte France). This paper explores the way in which
the mobile app form lends itself to elevation of migrant narratives and explores
the capacity of such works to generate empathy.

The paper will analyse the way in which migration and its subjects are treated
and placed into relation with the notion of the game. The paper will also address
the comparison between game-style apps and other online modes whereby
migrant experience is being represented, such as that of humanitarian
photojournalism and portraiture as it arises in social media apps, such as
Instagram.