Author: Matthew Lombard

Call: Foundations of Digital Games 2026

Published:

October 13, 2025

Call for Papers: Foundations of Digital Games 2026 (FDG’26)Copenhagen, DenmarkAugust 10-14, 2026https://fdg2026.org/call-for-papers/ Deadlines for submissions: Workshop, Competition, and Panel Proposals: November 21, 2025 Abstracts (for Regular Papers): December 5, 2025 Regular Papers: December 15, 2025 The 21st annual Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) conference invites researchers, educators, and practitioners to submit original research contributions. We welcome submissions in the form of full and short papers, posters, demos, doctoral consortium applications, and proposals for panels, competitions, and workshops. FDG invites contributions from within and across any discipline committed to advancing knowledge on the foundations of games, including computer science, engineering, mathematics,…
Read more: Call: Foundations of Digital Games 2026
Fire Dept. ‘inundated’ with calls reporting home in flames, but it’s just a Halloween illusion

Published:

October 13, 2025

[As some readers will know, I’m a big fan of Halloween, so I especially like it when stories appear each year about elaborate holiday displays that prompt passersby to respond as if the depicted event is real. This story is from People, where it includes a different image and a short video. See coverage from USA Today for another video, a photo gallery, and more information including this: “[Sam] Lee said it has taken him years to nail down the most realistic fire house. When asked how he does it, he declined to share the details. ‘’You can easily Google…
Read more: Fire Dept. ‘inundated’ with calls reporting home in flames, but it’s just a Halloween illusion
Call: Workshop: AI as a colleague? Towards a social epistemology of Artificial Intelligence

Published:

October 10, 2025

Call for Papers: Workshop: AI as a colleague? Towards a social epistemology of Artificial IntelligenceMarch 27, 2026University of BernBern, Switzerlandhttps://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=2510&L=PHILOS-L&P=111899529 Organizers: Claus Beisbart (University of Bern), Andreas Wolkenstein (LMU Munich) Deadline for submission of abstracts: December 1, 2025 Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently all the rage in most sciences and medical practice. Deep neural networks and other AI systems are successfully utilized to diagnose diseases from medical data, make predictions, and support treatment planning. Most of its tasks are epistemic, i.e., AI is used to gain knowledge or support inquiry and decision-making. As AI applications learn on the spot and…
Read more: Call: Workshop: AI as a colleague? Towards a social epistemology of Artificial Intelligence
Presence and philosophy: Five questions with Santa Clara U. professor Erick Jose Ramirez

Published:

October 10, 2025

[The “five questions” profile of philosophy professor and department chair Erick José Ramirez at Santa Clara University in California demonstrates some of the many important intersections of presence and philosophy. See the original version for a second image and follow the links within and at the end of the profile for more information. –Matthew] Five questions with … Erick José Ramirez A window into how scholarship at SCU connects academic excellence with a commitment to the common good. By Lisa RobinsonSeptember 25, 2025 Five Questions With … is a series of profiles that invites professors to share insights into their…
Read more: Presence and philosophy: Five questions with Santa Clara U. professor Erick Jose Ramirez
Call: The Visual Politics of Digital Ecologies – A Digital Ecologies Conference

Published:

October 9, 2025

Call for Papers: The Visual Politics of Digital EcologiesA Digital Ecologies ConferenceFebruary 2-3, 2026University of Oxford, Englandhttps://digicologies.com/ Deadline for submissions: November 14, 2025 As environmental degradation accelerates apace globally, Nature is becoming increasingly mediated through screens, sensors, and simulations: datafied, downloaded, and deciphered; saved, stored, and shared. Emerging technologies create novel visual regimes through which humans encounter, imagine, and interpret the other-than-human world. These visual regimes are not only technical; they also refashion ecological aesthetics, shaping how environments are perceived, valued, and cared for. Wildlife webcams promise unmediated intimacy with living beings, while Artificial Intelligence (AI) fabricates hallucinatory ecologies untethered…
Read more: Call: The Visual Politics of Digital Ecologies – A Digital Ecologies Conference
Funded research at Wayne State U. uses VR to study and address teen impacts of interpersonal violence

Published:

October 9, 2025

[The story below from Wayne State University describes a study that uses virtual reality and presence to first investigate “physiological, mental and emotional responses to social challenges to identify patterns of fear learning and threat perception that could be modified” and then develop a “low-cost, VR-based intervention … to help teens build social skills in a safe and realistic environment.” For more information about the project, follow the links at the end of the story and visit the website of the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute at Wayne State. –Matthew] [Image: Participants experience potentially stressful situations through virtual reality as physiological…
Read more: Funded research at Wayne State U. uses VR to study and address teen impacts of interpersonal violence
Call: Persuasive 2026, the 21st International Conference on Persuasive Technology

Published:

October 8, 2025

Call for Submissions: Persuasive 2026, the 21st International Conference on Persuasive TechnologyMarch 11-13, 2026Hakodate, Japanhttps://2026.persuasivetech.org Deadline for submissions of full and short papers: November 7, 2025 (more deadlines below) Keynote Speakers: Catherine Pelachaud (CNRS / Sorbonne University): Socially Interactive Agents as Support for Behavior Change Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka University / ATR): Avatar and the Future Society In an increasingly digital world, where technology continuously shapes people’s behavior and attitudes, studying how technology can be leveraged to influence humans positively and ethically is of growing importance. Persuasive Technology is a dynamic and interdisciplinary research field that focuses on the design, development,…
Read more: Call: Persuasive 2026, the 21st International Conference on Persuasive Technology
Using VR, U. of Maryland students help visualize climate change solutions at Point Lookout State Park

Published:

October 8, 2025

[Projects that use presence-evoking technologies to help people envision the long-term damaging impacts of climate change aren’t new, but the collaborative project reported in this story from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources also helps people develop and envision potential solutions that adapt to the climate change impacts. –Matthew] [Image: Point Lookout State Park Complex Manager Dawn Letts tries out one of the University of Maryland virtual reality projects for Point Lookout. Credit: Photo by Catherine Madsen/UMD Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability] Using Virtual Reality, Students Help Visualize Climate Change Solutions at Point Lookout State Park University of Maryland…
Read more: Using VR, U. of Maryland students help visualize climate change solutions at Point Lookout State Park
Call: Game Studies at 2025 National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference

Published:

October 7, 2025

Call For Papers: Game Studies at the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association ConferenceApril 8-11, 2026Atlanta, Georgia, USAhttps://pcaaca.org/members/group.aspx?id=250600 Deadline for submissions: November 30, 2025 The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers and panels on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held on April 8-11, 2026, in Atlanta, GA. The deadline for proposals is November 30th. I. TOPICS OF INTEREST The organizers seek proposals and papers covering all aspects of gaming, gaming culture and game studies.…
Read more: Call: Game Studies at 2025 National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference
How VR and AI could help the next generation grow kinder and more connected

Published:

October 7, 2025

[In this essay from The Conversation, Indiana University professor of Human-Centered Computing Ekaterina Muravevskaia describes her all-too-timely work addressing the “promise and challenge” of using presence-evoking technologies to help children learn the and practice empathy. See the original version of the essay for a second image and a video (also available on YouTube). –Matthew] [Image: Technology can be isolating, but it can also help kids learn emotional connection. Credit: Dusan Stankovic/E+ via Getty Images] How VR and AI could help the next generation grow kinder and more connected By Ekaterina Muravevskaia, Assistant Professor of Human-Centered Computing, Indiana UniversityOctober 2, 2025…
Read more: How VR and AI could help the next generation grow kinder and more connected
Call: Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage – track at Design Research Society Conference 2026

Published:

October 6, 2025

Call for Papers: Futuring Digital Cultural HeritageA theme track at the Design Research Society Conference 2026 (DRS2026)June 8-12, 2026Scotland, United Kingdomhttps://drs2026.thedrs.org/6-2-futuring-digital-cultural-heritagehttps://drs2026.thedrs.org/home Deadlines for submissions:Abstracts: October 31, 2025Full papers: November 14, 2025 We’re excited to share that the theme track Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage has been selected for the Design Research Society Conference 2026 (DRS2026), one of the world’s leading international forums for design research. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAMs) now operate in a condition where digitality has become so pervasive and infrastructural that it often disappears precisely because it is everywhere as GLAMs function in a deeply mediatized, networked,…
Read more: Call: Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage – track at Design Research Society Conference 2026
From NASA to the Metaverse – and why Professor Bob Stone still isn’t impressed

Published:

October 6, 2025

[The insights and predictions of experts who have long and deep experience in any field are often extremely interesting and valuable. For example, here’s a short summary of the perspectives on XR from virtual and extended reality expert Bob Stone by the publisher of XR Today. –Matthew] From NASA to the Metaverse – and Why Professor Bob Stone Still Isn’t Impressed Bob Stone reflects on the rollercoaster evolution of XR – hype, heritage, and hard truths. By Rob Scott, PublisherOctober 2, 2025 In 1987, standing on solid ground at NASA Ames, Bob Stone felt his stomach churn as he ascended…
Read more: From NASA to the Metaverse – and why Professor Bob Stone still isn’t impressed

International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

Call: Foundations of Digital Games 2026

Fire Dept. ‘inundated’ with calls reporting home in flames, but it’s just a Halloween illusion

Call: Workshop: AI as a colleague? Towards a social epistemology of Artificial Intelligence

Presence and philosophy: Five questions with Santa Clara U. professor Erick Jose Ramirez

Call: The Visual Politics of Digital Ecologies – A Digital Ecologies Conference

Funded research at Wayne State U. uses VR to study and address teen impacts of interpersonal violence

Call: Persuasive 2026, the 21st International Conference on Persuasive Technology

Using VR, U. of Maryland students help visualize climate change solutions at Point Lookout State Park

Call: Game Studies at 2025 National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference

How VR and AI could help the next generation grow kinder and more connected

Call: Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage – track at Design Research Society Conference 2026

From NASA to the Metaverse – and why Professor Bob Stone still isn’t impressed

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