Literature review: virtual museum of protest art as empathy machine

Purpose This study offers an integrative narrative review of interdisciplinary scholarship on protest art, digital circulation, surveillance, memory and immersive media. It aims to examine how memories of protest endure beyond moments of collective assembly and develops a conceptual framework for understanding virtual museums of protest art as counter-archival empathy machines. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an integrative narrative review to synthesise scholarship across media studies, visual culture, affect theory, archival and counter-archive studies, urban and spatial studies, surveillance studies, and human–computer interaction. Findings The review shows that such memory is sustained by remediated artworks, affective circulation across digital platforms, spatial traces embedded within urban environments, and data generated through surveillance regimes. It suggests that empathic engagement in virtual reality (VR) environments emerges through embodied participation and interpretive engagement rather than immersion alone. Synthesising recent scholarship on virtual museums and digital heritage, the article conceptualises the VR protest art museum as a counter-archival empathy machine through which these memories are encountered and reinterpreted within immersive environments. Research limitations/implications The study is conceptual and does not present an implemented VR system. It identifies immersive protest archives as an area requiring further empirical and practice-based research. Originality/value The study integrates counter-archival theory, affective media studies and immersive interaction design to explain how protest histories may be experienced through participatory, embodied and interpretive forms of engagement.