PRESENCE 2008

11th Annual International Workshop on Presence, Padova, Italy, October 16-18, 2008

Second Call for Papers

Submission deadline (extended): May 23, 2008

Academics and practitioners with an interest in the concept of (tele)presence are invited to submit their work for presentation at the 11th Annual International Workshop on Presence, to be held in Padova, Italy, on October 16-18, 2008.

Often described as a sense of “being there” in a mediated environment, telepresence is broadly defined as a psychological state or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience. It is a rich, fascinating subject of scientific investigation, artistic exploration and diverse application, with increasingly important implications for the ways in which people interact and technologies are developed. Designing technologies and imagining practices to modify, prolong and reconfigure the possibilities of being present has been a continuous endeavor of the human species, from early attempts at constructing communication and transportation devices, to the many current technologies we continue to develop to reach other places and people. Originally focused on bringing “presence” from the real world to a simulated one, the phenomenon is today analyzed and investigated in the context of diverse environments and involves questioning simple distinctions between “‘real” and “artificial”. This opening to a wide range of mediated environments is accompanied by a growing involvement of different research fields that are continuously updating and modifying the contours of presence scholarship. The phenomenon of presence is challenging from a scientific point of view as much as it is viable in everyday life, where people participate in simultaneous mediated experiences, feeling present or co-present in digital locations without any need for explicit instructions and orchestrating technical and cognitive resources to control and enhance presence. What it means to be present in mediated environments is then an extremely relevant and enticing question, bearing all sorts of implications for the design and application of diverse technologies.

More at www.presence2008.org