CALL FOR PAPERS
PRESENCE 2020
18th conference of the International Society for Presence Research (ISPR)
Orlando, Florida, USA
October 23-25, 2020
https://ispr.info/call-presence-2020
Conference theme: World of presence
- Submission deadline: June 1, 2020 (with some flexibility – email us if you need a few extra days)
- Online submissions should be submitted via EasyChair.
- Notification of acceptance decisions: July 1, 2020
- Finished, camera-ready papers due: October 1, 2020
Coronavirus notice: We have no plans to cancel this in-person conference event but will offer a virtual component for anyone who isn’t able to attend. It would be ironic if presence experts didn’t offer the option for remote participation, and it will represent a valuable opportunity to explore the dynamics of what will be an increasingly common real-world application of presence.
PLEASE HELP US GET THE WORD OUT BY SHARING THIS CALL FOR PAPERS
OVERVIEW
Telepresence, often shortened to presence, is a state or perception in which we overlook or misconstrue the role of technology and feel present in the environments and/or connected to the people or things we experience via technology. It’s increasingly relevant to a wide range of media experiences and application areas.
Following a series of 17 successful Presence conference events, PRESENCE 2020 will retain the single-track format and enjoyable social environment of previous conferences while featuring an expanded variety of paper and poster sessions, panel discussions, keynote presentations, hands-on demonstrations of presence applications/services/projects, and informal discussion, networking and fun. Members of both academic and industry communities are welcome.
At the end of the first day, all attendees are invited to a social dinner; we also hope you’ll join us for all or part of a day of demonstration visits and guided sightseeing.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The term presence has many formal and informal meanings but is used by a growing interdisciplinary scholarly community to refer to experiences in which technology is overlooked or misconstrued in some way during a mediated experience. Long a focus of those who study virtual reality and environments, it’s increasingly relevant to a wide range of media experiences. For example, presence occurs when we get “lost” in the world of a novel, TV show, movie, video game or theme park ride; we’re convinced by the realism of paintings or graphic designs; we treat our cars, computers or other machines as if they have personalities of their own, and we feel like we’re “with” a person we talk to on the phone or in a video conference.
The presence research community has been working to identify causes, characteristics and consequences of diverse presence experiences. The consequences identified so far – including arousal/relaxation, empathy, enjoyment, persuasion and more – make clear the importance and power of presence to improve communication across a wide variety of contexts and applications of interest to scholars and those who create media technologies and content. Presence as a concept and set of phenomena is related to the work being done in nearly every field and business sector from art to zoology, with particularly direct applications in business, education, entertainment and health. The 4000+ posts in ISPR Presence News and thousands more on its predecessor, the presence-l listserv, along with the Presence Bibliography on the ISPR website, illustrate the breadth of presence applications, and the breadth, depth and value of presence scholarship.
The objectives of the conference are to deepen and update the knowledge of those already familiar with presence and introduce new scholars and practitioners to the centrality, pervasiveness, and value of presence phenomena, theory and research. The overarching goal is to help integrate and increase collaborative scholarship on presence.
SUBMISSIONS
Topics
We seek original, high quality papers and demonstrations that contribute to our collective understanding of presence phenomena and applications in any/every aspect of life. Topics of interest include (but are absolutely not limited to):
- Presence theory
- Measures of presence
- Presence and emotion
- Presence and education
- Presence and social interaction
- Gender and Presence
- Neuroscience approaches to Presence
- Presence in gaming and entertainment
- Philosophical perspectives on presence
- Ethics of presence
- Presence technologies and applications (e.g. in business, arts, medicine and therapy)
- The future of presence research
Theme: The world of presence
Presence experiences are becoming more common in more aspects of life for more and more people around the world. These experiences have the potential to bring diverse individuals, groups and nations together but also isolate them in their own mediated realities. What are the contours of presence around the world and what implications and challenges does it pose for researchers, scholars, technology designers and users, and citizens? We invite submission in all of the categories below that identify, consider and ideally propose specific steps we can take to make presence a force for positive rather than negative change. Data-based projects, concept and theory building work as well as personal (first person) reflections are encouraged.
Categories
We invite researchers and practitioners to submit their work in the categories below. All submissions are to be in APA format and except for the separate title page not identify the author(s) directly or indirectly (for blind peer review). A template for Microsoft Word is available here and a template for LaTeX is available here.
- PAPERS: Comprehensive descriptions of research or design work and/or theoretical investigation within the scope of the conference; up to 30 pages (including references) in APA format. Papers must relate to existing literature on presence and make an original contribution to it.
- SHORT PAPERS: Short papers may be up to 12 pages in APA format.
- POSTERS: Visual display presentations. Poster proposals must describe and/or contain early drafts of the visual display. Accepted poster abstracts will be displayed during a dedicated session of the conference that begins with short oral previews, and then published in the conference Proceedings.
- DEMONSTRATIONS/EXHIBITIONS: Step-by-step audiovisual demonstrations and/or hands-on experiences of non-commercial work within the scope of the conference. Accepted demonstration/exhibition proposals will be presented during a dedicated session of the conference and included in the conference Proceedings. For the exhibitions of commercial products, please contact us for sponsorship terms and opportunities.
- PANELS: Presence 2020 welcomes panel proposals which allow panelists and participants to discuss any topic relevant to presence, especially the conference theme of challenges. Discussion and paper panel submissions must include the following: (1) title, (2) description and rationale (75 words or less), (3) titles and brief abstracts (100 words or less) for each panelist, and (4) a complete list of participants along with their institutional affiliations and contact information.
Proceedings
All accepted submissions will be collected in the official conference proceedings (with ISBN) and will be permanently available for download in the ISPR conference archive.
Procedure
Online submissions should be submitted via EasyChair.
IMPORTANT DATES
- Submission deadline: June 1, 2020 (with some flexibility – email us if you need a few extra days)
- Notification of acceptance decisions: July 1, 2020
- Finished, camera-ready papers due: October 1, 2020
LOCATION/VENUE
The conference will take place at the main campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, USA. The large (1,415-acre) campus in east Orlando has a unique concentric circle design and features modern facilities, state-of-the-art technology and 800 acres of woodlands, lakes and an arboretum.
The Orlando area has many interesting places to visit including, just for example:
- Kennedy Space Center, one of ten National Aeronautics and Space Administration field centers in the USA.
- Church Street District, home to an electric mix of world-class dining, professional sports, live entertainment, nightspots and theater named after the historic Church Street Station, also called the Old Orlando Railroad Depot, a historic train station constructed in 1889 by South Florida Railroad.
- Lake Eola Park in Downtown Orlando with its iconic “Linton E. Allen Memorial Fountain” the official symbol of Orlando.
But aside from all the other things to do and see in the area, Orlando is the home of some of the most entertaining and ambitious presence experiences anywhere, at the theme parks of Walt Disney World (including the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge) and Universal Orlando (including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter). It’s an ideal place to explore both the presence theory and practice.
ABOUT ISPR
The International Society for Presence Research (ISPR) is a non-profit membership organization founded in 2002 to support academic research related to the concept of (tele)presence.
ISPR has sponsored 17 successful international conferences (beginning informally in 1998), providing richly social opportunities to share scholarship and applications of the presence concept.
The ISPR website (https://ispr.info) serves as a resource for those who conduct research, develop theory, design, market, write about, or simply are interested in, the concept and phenomena of presence.
ISPR Presence News, available via the ISPR website, provides current news stories, calls for papers and participation, position announcements, and other informative posts every weekday (a total of nearly 4000 posts since 2009).
ORGANIZERS and CONTACT
Matthew Lombard, Temple University (lombard@temple.edu)
Cheryl Bracken, Cleveland State University
Jihyun Kim, University of Central Florida
Eugene Kukshinov, Temple University
SongYi Lee, Temple University
Kun Xu, University of Florida
Hocheol Yang, Temple University