ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: July 2020

Call: Storytelling and the Body – 2nd Global Inclusive Conference

Call for Contributions and Participation

Storytelling and the Body
2nd Global Inclusive Conference
Friday 12th March 2021 – Saturday 13th March 2021
Lisbon, Portugal
http://www.progressiveconnexions.net/interdisciplinary-projects/storytelling/storytelling-and-the-body/conferences/

300 word proposals, presentations, abstracts and other forms of contribution and participation should be submitted by Friday 4th September 2020

NOTE: Due to the postponement of this event in relation to the Covid pandemic, we are delighted to be able to unexpectedly reopen the Call for Submissions for the newly rescheduled dates.

Bodies of all kinds surround us. Glamorous bodies, modified bodies, healthy or unhealthy bodies, engineered bodies, trafficked bodies, in/visible bodies, dismembered bodies, persecuted bodies – ubiquitous and ever-present, we cannot help but notice them. But how do understand them? Through stories. Both fiction and non-fiction stories shape our understanding of what constitutes a/the body in the first place, and then create norms about how a body should look, behave, experience the world and even how bodies should interact with each other.… read more. “Call: Storytelling and the Body – 2nd Global Inclusive Conference”

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Presence and inverse presence: VR tour of Sir Edumund Hillary’s Antarctica base launched by NZ PM

[This story from STUFF describes a new virtual tour that provides the public with a first-person experience of a distant heritage site and it also includes an interesting example of inverse presence, where an experience not mediated by technology is perceived as mediated. See the original story for 7 more images and a 41 second video. For more information, including a different 2:31 minute video, see the Antarctic Heritage Trust website. And for a 1:53 minute news report see 1 News. –Matthew]

[Image: Sir Edmund Hillary’s grandson Alexander Hillary with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Credit: Abigail Dougherty/STUFF]

Hillary’s Hut: Virtual reality tour of explorer’s Antarctica base launched by PM

Kendall Hutt
July 31 2020

Kiwis can now take a step back in time and explore Scott Base’s oldest building in Antarctica thanks to virtual reality.

It is hoped thousands will gain an insight into how the 23 men of Sir Edmund Hillary’s team lived and worked more than 60 years ago by exploring his hut.… read more. “Presence and inverse presence: VR tour of Sir Edumund Hillary’s Antarctica base launched by NZ PM”

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Call: “God(s) and the Digital” issue of Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society

Call for Papers

God(s) and the Digital.
Theological Perspectives and Religious Metaphors.
Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society (JRAT)
ed. by Gemma Serrano and Alessandro De Cesaris
https://www.religionandtransformation.at/fileadmin/user_upload/p_religions_transformation/J-RaT/Call_for_papers_-_God_s__and_the_Digital.pdf

Proposals due by September 30th, 2020

The Interdisciplinary “Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society” (JRAT) is an interdisciplinary, international, online open-access journal with a double-blind peer-review process. It was established in 2015, since 2019 it is published with BRILL. Every issue has a distinct thematic focus which is approached from different disciplines. The journal aims at investigating the contribution of religions to the cultural, political, juridical, and aesthetic dynamics in present-day pluralistic societies. Vice versa, it examines the influence of the contemporary processes of social transformation on religions and religious expressions.

Call for Papers:

The relationship between technology and culture has become one of the most relevant topics in the field of Humanities.… read more. “Call: “God(s) and the Digital” issue of Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society”

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Art galleries and fairs are turning to virtual reality to connect with collectors

[This story from Artsy reports on how the pandemic has encouraged new uses of presence-evoking technologies for viewing and purchasing high-end art; see the original version of the story for 11 more images. –Matthew]

[Image: ArtLab, in software installation view of Ellen Gallagher’s DeLuxe, 2004-05, and Mark Bradford’s Chicago, 2019, created in HWVR. Credit: Copyright held by the artists. Courtesy of the artists and Hauser & Wirth.]

Galleries and Fairs Are Turning to Virtual Reality to Connect with Collectors

Justin Kamp
July 29, 2020

In the months since COVID-19 shut down most traditional in-person avenues for viewing and purchasing art, virtual reality (VR)—along with its associated forms of extended (XR) and alternate reality (AR)—has become increasingly prevalent not just as a medium for creation, but also as a tool for conducting business. The VR format is a new frontier for many of those involved, and the transition to virtual space has required art-world players to adapt to the challenges—and possibilities—that come with operating in a medium that is in many ways still largely unexplored.… read more. “Art galleries and fairs are turning to virtual reality to connect with collectors”

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Call: “Augmenting Space: The role of immersive technologies in future cities” for IxD&A Journal

Call for Papers

Special Issue on
Augmenting Space: The role of immersive technologies in future cities

to be published at the
Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal (IxD&A)

(ISSN 1826-9745, eISSN 2283-2998)

IxD&A implements the Gold Open Access (OA) road to its contents with no charge to the authors (submission & paper processing). Help us in improving the quality of the editorial process and of the journal, please donate:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5EUX7CQ3GKSSG

http://ixdea.uniroma2.it/inevent/events/idea2010/index.php?s=102&link=call46fs

Guest Editors:

  • Callum Parker, The University of Sydney, Australia
  • Soojeong Yoo, The University of Sydney, Australia
  • Waldemar Jenek, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
  • Youngho Lee, Mokpo National University, South Korea

Important dates:

  • Deadline: September 3, 2020 (extended)
  • Notification to the authors: October 15, 2020
  • Camera ready paper: November 10, 2020
  • Publication of the special issue: end of November, 2020

OVERVIEW

As digital technologies are advancing, contemporary interactions within cities are beginning to emerge.… read more. “Call: “Augmenting Space: The role of immersive technologies in future cities” for IxD&A Journal”

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WHO uses AI-based digital health worker Florence to help people quit smoking

[NZBusiness describes a promising application of technology that can create social presence with a virtual person to help people quit smoking (note there are links to two videos at the end). Co-founder and chief business officer of the New Zealand company that created the technology, Greg Cross, comments further in other coverage:

From NZHub:

“We would call Florence a digital person,” Greg Cross, co-founder of Soul Machines, told Morning Report.

“She’s a CGI creation just as we see in the movies, but what’s unique about Florence and other digital people like her is she is … autonomously animated by a digital brain. You’re having a face-to-face interaction with a digital person.

“One of the things we know from our day-to-day lives is we learn to build relationships, we learn to build trust, with face to face interactions.

“Florence and digital people go way beyond what chatbots and voice assistants can do in terms of emotional connection and emotional engagement with us.”… read more. “WHO uses AI-based digital health worker Florence to help people quit smoking”

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Roomality: Window and wall-sized virtual reality without goggles or headsets

[A modern version of wall murals (e.g., those sold by wall26), Roomality’s virtual windows and walls use 3D and AI to create a compelling presence illusion without obtrusive headsets or even glasses. This story is from The Irish Times, where it includes a 1:41 minute video (also available via YouTube) and two more images. For more information, including a second video (also on YouTube), see the company’s website. –Matthew]

Irish entrepreneur promises VR experience without goggles or headsets

John Moore’s Roomality is developing ‘virtual windows’ solution

By Charlie Taylor
July 21, 2020

Tech entrepreneur John Moore, who sold his former company 3D4Medical to publisher Elsevier in a $50.6 million (€44.2 million) deal last year, has invested about €500,000 in his latest venture Roomality, which is developing a “virtual windows” solution.

Mr Moore personally netted over €24 million from the sale of the award-winning 3D medical technology company in November and has wasted no time spending the proceeds.… read more. “Roomality: Window and wall-sized virtual reality without goggles or headsets”

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Call / ISPR News: PRESENCE 2020 submission deadline extended to August 20

[The deadline for PRESENCE 2020 submissions has been extended to August 20 – the updated Call for Papers is below; please consider submitting your work (or just attending)…

–Matthew]

CALL FOR PAPERS

PRESENCE 2020
18th conference of the International Society for Presence Research (ISPR)
Online + Synchronous
October 23, 2020
https://ispr.info/call-presence-2020
This Call for Papers in pdf format

Conference theme: Presence during and after the pandemic

The 18th PRESENCE conference will take place as a one-day, fast-track online conference. All presence topics are also welcome but submissions related to early phase projects, papers, and studies about the impacts of the pandemic on presence phenomena now and in the years ahead are particularly encouraged. 

The 19th PRESENCE conference will take place next fall 2021 in Orlando that was originally planned this year.

  • Submission deadline: August 20, 2020 (with some flexibility – email us if you need a few extra days)
  • Online submissions should be submitted via EasyChair.
read more. “Call / ISPR News: PRESENCE 2020 submission deadline extended to August 20”
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Call: “Experimental and Integrative Approaches to Robo-ethics” issue of IJSR

CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue: “Experimental and Integrative Approaches to Robo-ethics”
International Journal of Social Robotics
(Springer; Impact Factor 2.516 in 2019)
Journal website: https://www.springer.com/journal/12369

Manuscript submission due date: 28 February 2021

AIM OF THE ISSUE:

The development and diffusion of social robots gives increasingly rise to ethical and legal concerns related to, e.g., responsibility assignments in cooperative tasks, implementation of moral rules in robots, possible dual uses and misuses of artificial agents, unintended modifications of social, cognitive, emotive and communication abilities in humans interacting with robots. The urgency of developing effective ethical inquiries related to these issues leads specialists to acknowledge the need to overcome classical approaches, based exclusively on philosophical analysis. Emerging trends are incorporating, within the frameworks of ethical inquiries on social robots, a series of methods, tools and scenarios defining empirical research in Social Robotics and HRI.… read more. “Call: “Experimental and Integrative Approaches to Robo-ethics” issue of IJSR”

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Promise and peril: Sonantic’s emotional AI voices

[This short piece from PC Gamer nicely captures both prospective benefits and significant concerns about a future saturated with presence experiences, focused in this case on a new AI-driven text-to-speech technology that creates compelling illusions. The original story includes the 4:25 minute video it describes, and the video is also available on YouTube and on Sonantic’s website. More information is in stories from Yahoo! News and The Times (the latter behind a subscriber firewall). –Matthew]

Oh good, someone invented the ‘first AI capable of crying’

A company has created a text-to-speech technology that doesn’t just read words, it simulates an acting performance.

By Christopher Livingston
May 14, 2020

Text-to-speech is a prolific and extremely useful technology, but it doesn’t burst into tears often enough while reading to you, does it? There’s a fix for that from Sonantic, a company that claims to have invented “the world’s first AI capable of crying.”… read more. “Promise and peril: Sonantic’s emotional AI voices”

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