International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • Call: ICIDS 2026 – 19th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling

    Published:

    Call for Papers: ICIDS 202619th International Conference on Interactive Digital StorytellingTHEME: Adapt | abilitiesNovember 30 – December 4, 2026Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok, Thailand and onlinehttps://icids2026.ardin.online/ Deadlines for submissions:Long and Short Papers: June 22, 2026Late-breaking Works: September 14, 2026 This year’s ICIDS (International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling) will return to Southeast Asia, having last been hosted in the region in Singapore in 2014. The hosting city is Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, a country with a rich history as a cultural crossroads, where diverse traditions from across its varied landscapes have intertwined to create a complex and non-homogeneous society.…

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  • Why deepfake political ads are fooling older Americans

    Published:

    [This story from the conservative newspaper The Washington Times describes multiple factors that are said to magnify the negative impacts of presence-evoking political ads on television and social media for older voters. See the original version of the story for a 7:19 minute video report. Note that Thomas Massie and John Cornyn both lost their re-election campaigns. –Matthew] ‘More real than real’: Why deep-fake political ads are fooling older Americans By Seth McLaughlinMay 18, 2026 When Rep. Thomas Massie raised the alarm about an artificial intelligence-generated attack ad that falsely shows him in a romantic scenario with two liberal Democratic…

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  • Call: Parasocial Grief (book chapters)

    Published:

    Call for Book Chapters: Parasocial Griefhttps://telegra.ph/CALL-FOR-SUBMISSIONS-Call-for-Book-Chapters-Parasocial-Grief-05-01 Editors: Katie Thomas (Virginia Tech) and Alex Boesch (Ohio University) Deadline for proposals: July 30, 2026 We are seeking chapter proposals for an edited academic volume exploring the multifaceted phenomenon of parasocial grief. This book examines how individuals experience grief in relation to parasocial relationships/breakups with media figures, fictional characters, influencers, and other public personalities. This volume has interest from a publisher and seeks to advance scholarly understanding of parasocial relationships by centering grief as a meaningful and underexplored dimension of media engagement. Parasocial grief may emerge in response to a range of experiences,…

    Read more: Call: Parasocial Grief (book chapters)

  • I chatted with Google’s lifesize, hyperreal AI companion

    Published:

    [An ISPR Presence News post a few months ago provided a first-person report on the impressive ability of the Google Beam system to evoke social presence with another person; the story below from CNET provides a similar report on the system’s ability to evoke presence with an AI-generated simulation of another person. The author also considers a variety of applications and implications of the technology. –Matthew] [Image: Google Beam just got an experimental video AI agent. I don’t know what its name is. Oh and that’s an AI generated image of my cameraman and myself in the room. Credit: Scott…

    Read more: I chatted with Google’s lifesize, hyperreal AI companion

  • Call: At the Crossroads of Mind and Machine: Neuroethics Reshaped by LLMs

    Published:

    Call for Papers: At the Crossroads of Mind and Machine: Neuroethics Reshaped by LLMs (LLM-Neuroethics)A special issue of the journal Neuroethicshttps://link.springer.com/collections/jfcjdddgdd Editors:  Shengbai Chen, Xiaojun Ding, Jianhua Mei, Hao Zhan and  Mirko Farina Deadline for submissions: October 31, 2026 We are witnessing an unprecedented explosion in Large Language Models (LLMs), shifting the integration of generative AI and mind sciences from theoretical speculation to immediate practical application. As LLMs are increasingly deployed to decode neural data, model human cognition, and act as therapeutic agents, establishing robust philosophical and ethical frameworks is no longer a future goal but an urgent necessity.…

    Read more: Call: At the Crossroads of Mind and Machine: Neuroethics Reshaped by LLMs

  • Why clinical VR is succeeding where the metaverse failed

    Published:

    [In this essay from HackerNoon, neuropsychologist Nargiza Noimann-Zander argues that content, hardware comfort and time spent engaging with a user interface are less important in the success of virtual social worlds, and especially clinical applications, of immersive media technologies than presence. For more about the author, see a biography in CIO Times, the Noimann Academy website, and her ORCID profile. –Matthew] Why Clinical VR Is Succeeding Where the Metaverse Failed By Nargiza Noimann-Zander, Neuropsychologist, VR therapy innovator, and founder of X-Technology. Focused on AI/VR solutions for cancer & Alzheimer’s.April 28th, 2026 When Meta spent billions building a virtual social world…

    Read more: Why clinical VR is succeeding where the metaverse failed

  • Call: Museums+Tech 2026 – Using our spaces for authentic interactions

    Published:

    Call for Proposals: Museums Computer Group (MCG)’s Museums+Tech 2026 ConferenceTheme: Using our spaces for authentic interactionsNovember 27, 2026M Shed – Princes Wharf, Wapping Rd, Bristol BS1 4RN, United Kingdom and Onlinehttps://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/mcg-museumstech-2026-using-our-spaces-for-authentic-interactions/ Deadline for submission of proposals: June 29, 2026 Something that unites and affects all museums is place. Some museums are sited where they are to help tell the story of the place they are in, occupying the sites of former works or heritage buildings. Others are designed to tell our stories to the people in and around the place they are in, such as many of our cherished local…

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  • VR game about zombie ants increases players’ understanding of evolution

    Published:

    [Utrecht University researchers have used a cleverly designed presence experience to teach game players about the important but often confusing and controversial topic of evolution. There are more images in the original version of this story and more details in the researchers’ article in the European Journal of STEM Education. In the article they explain how their choice to have players take the role of fungi in the Zombie Ants VR game was in part because of the popularity of the HBO series and video game The Last of Us. They write that they used virtual reality because it ”provides…

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  • Call: AI-Mediated Communication: Emotion, Interaction, and Public Meaning

    Published:

    [Note that this journal requires a publication fee, which may be payable by your institution. For more information see the last section below. For general information about publication fees, see AJE Scholar’s “Understanding Submission and Publication Fees” and Wikipedia’s entry on Article Processing Charges. –Matthew] Call for Papers: AI-Mediated Communication: Emotion, Interaction, and Public MeaningA thematic issue of the journal Media and Communicationhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/futureissues#i577 Editor: Don Shin (Texas Tech University) Important dates: Deadline for submission of abstracts: June 1-15, 2026 Submission of full papers: October 15-30, 2026 Publication of the Issue: January/June 2027 ABOUT THE ISSUE This thematic issue examines how…

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  • Viral stunt demonstrates power of AI and (inverse) presence

    Published:

    [As the effectiveness of generative artificial intelligence increases, a viral stunt demonstrates the power of labels and expectations to shape perception and evoke not just presence but inverse presence. This story is from DesignTAXI, where the original version includes many embedded social media posts that illustrate the misperception. For more details and post excerpts, see coverage in Fortune, PetaPixel and the Stable Diffusion subreddit. –Matthew] Real Monet got mistaken as AI copy, and everyone kept ripping it apart May 20, 2026 More than a century after Claude Monet painted Water Lilies, an image of the work managed to fool millions…

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  • Call: Lockdown and its (Digital) Afterlives

    Published:

    Call for Papers: Lockdown and its (Digital) AfterlivesMedia, Infrastructure, and Everyday Life in Regenerative PerspectiveA preconference of AoIR 2026, the annual conference of the Association of Internet ResearchersOctober 13, 2026Hyatt Regency HotelMexico City, Mexico[From a May 19, 2026 post by Eszter Zimanyi on the AoIR mailing list] Deadline for submission of abstracts: July 15, 2026 In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic instantiated waves of lockdowns of varying severity across the globe. As nations struggled to reach consensus over how to best contain and manage the spread of the highly contagious and deadly disease, tech entrepreneurs and platform companies positioned their digital…

    Read more: Call: Lockdown and its (Digital) Afterlives

  • Extending remote work to the factory floor through telepresence

    Published:

    [The expert author of this essay from Robotics & Automation News makes a strong argument for, and predictions about, the increased use of telepresence in a wide variety of remote work settings. –Matthew] Expert opinion: Extending remote work to the factory floor through telepresence By David EdwardsGuest author: Yonas Teodros Tefera, research team lead of the Vicarios Lab in the Department of Advanced Robotics at the Italian Institute of TechnologyMay 13, 2026 Remote work has largely been defined by office jobs. Video calls, shared documents, and digital collaboration tools have allowed knowledge workers to operate from almost anywhere.…

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