Author: Matthew Lombard

World’s first immersive Elvis AI show to open in London

Published:

January 4, 2024

[There’s a lot of press coverage this morning about a new entertainment project that will use a combination of presence-evoking technologies to recreate concert and other experiences with Elvis Presley. The story below from BroadwayWorld provides the key details. Reuters adds this context: “Global interest in the singer, widely acclaimed as the best selling solo music artist of all time with more than 500 million records sold, is undimmed 46 years after he died aged 42. Baz Luhrmann’s biography ‘Elvis’, released in 2022, created a new generation of fans, while Sofia Coppola’s 2023 ‘Priscilla’ explored his complex relationship with his…
Read more: World’s first immersive Elvis AI show to open in London
Call: Philosophy of Avatars: Avatars that represent humans: Moral, legal, and social considerations (workshop)

Published:

January 3, 2024

Call for Abstracts Philosophy of Avatars: Avatars that represent humans: Moral, legal, and social considerations March 2, 2024 University of Aberdeen Aberdeen, Scotland [and online] https://philevents.org/event/show/117733 Submission deadline: January 19, 2024 DESCRIPTION Increasingly, avatars represent humans in ways that differ importantly from the familiar avatar/gamer relation. For example, ‘continuing bonds’ representations of deceased people and Hollywood replicas present as being the represented person, in a way that a gaming avatar does not. This workshop explores questions arising from avatar/human representation: around the nature and limits of avatar representation, avatar ownership, responsibility for avatar’s actions and the potential impact of increased…
Read more: Call: Philosophy of Avatars: Avatars that represent humans: Moral, legal, and social considerations (workshop)
At ground level: New virtual reality exhibit showcases October 7 atrocities

Published:

January 3, 2024

[In the aftermath of the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, the founders of Treedis, an Israeli company that produces virtual and augmented reality media to “advertise properties and other assets,” began documenting some of the events and experiences of that day using virtual reality. The story below from Ynetnews provides details about the project (warning: some content is very disturbing); see the original version of the story for two more images and a 1:38 minute video. More details and the immersive 3D material is available on the Treedis website. Coverage from All Israel News notes that “The purpose of…
Read more: At ground level: New virtual reality exhibit showcases October 7 atrocities
Call: Shifting Natures Symposium at ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry

Published:

January 2, 2024

Call for Papers Symposium: SHIFTING NATURES March 14-15, 2024 ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry https://www.ici-berlin.org/call-for-papers-symposium-shifting-natures/ Deadline to send an abstract: January 28,2024 The very concept of nature has been the subject of thorough critique for quite a while. From a Western deconstructive perspective, nature is a signifier standing for naive immediacy or reactionary normativity. Poststructuralist and queer paradigms have shifted from an idea of nature as a being and of the natural as a given to a conception of them as effects of discursive, performative practices. These critiques marked a turning point in the centuries-long debate on the concept…
Read more: Call: Shifting Natures Symposium at ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry
Presence implications: AI can make art that feels human. Whose fault is that?

Published:

January 2, 2024

[This critical essay from The New York Times argues that rather than being concerned about technologies that produce presence-evoking simulations of human cultural artifacts, we should be concerned about the formulaic and unimaginative nature of the actual artifacts. See the original version for four more images. –Matthew] [Image: “Hello Vincent,” at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, allows you to converse with an A.I. Van Gogh. Credit: Elliott Verdier for The New York Times] A.I. Can Make Art That Feels Human. Whose Fault Is That? A fake Drake/Weeknd mash-up is not a threat to our species’s culture. It’s a warning: We…
Read more: Presence implications: AI can make art that feels human. Whose fault is that?
Call: Safety Research special issue: The Use of Extended Reality Technologies in Safety Research

Published:

December 29, 2023

Call for Papers Special issue of Safety Research: The Use of Extended Reality Technologies in Safety Research https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/safety-science/about/call-for-papers Guest editors: Dr. Daniel Paes, Massey University Dr. Zhenan Feng, Massey University A/Prof. Nan Li, Tsinghua University A/Prof. Ruggiero Lovreglio, Massey University Submission deadline: February 28, 2024 Many contemporary human activities carry inherent risks to people’s safety, and there is growing recognition of the need to improve safety records and reduce injury and fatality rates across various sectors worldwide. As a result, industry practitioners and academics are exploring the use of Extended Reality technology solutions to enhance safety. As technology advances and…
Read more: Call: Safety Research special issue: The Use of Extended Reality Technologies in Safety Research
Two engaging end-of-year presence stories presented as graphical essays

Published:

December 29, 2023

[Just as there’s irony in our travelling to conferences to discuss technology-based illusions of being there together, and publishing our manuscripts about vivid presence experiences with few or no images (or videos, etc.), I wish there were more news stories about presence that went beyond text and photos. Here are links to two recent examples that do. In the first, “Empathy 101,“ a “comic journalist“ explains how medical schools are using a variety of technologies including virtual reality to increase students’ understanding of and respect for the experiences of their patients. A short description of the piece from The Journalist’s…
Read more: Two engaging end-of-year presence stories presented as graphical essays
Call: In the Thick of Images: Law, History and the Visual Conference

Published:

December 28, 2023

Call for Papers In the Thick of Images: Law, History and the Visual Confernce June 10 & 11, 2024 University of Lucerne, Switzerland https://www.unilu.ch/en/faculties/faculty-of-law/institutes-academies-research-centres/institute-for-interdisciplinary-legal-studies-lucernaiuris/events/in-the-thick-of-images-law-history-and-the-visual/#tab=c156596 Submission deadline: January 19, 2024 “Suppose that whatever we’ve done, felt, and thought has always happened in the thick of images.” (Anand Pandian, Reel World: An Anthropology of Creation) The ‘visual turn’ has long been turning in critical and cultural studies of law (see Douzinas & Nead 1999). In the past twenty-five years, a growing body of scholarship has evolved that emphasises law’s “constitutive imbrication” (Crawley 2020) with an array of visual forms, and elaborates on…
Read more: Call: In the Thick of Images: Law, History and the Visual Conference
Future presence: Portable, non-invasive, mind-reading AI turns thoughts into text

Published:

December 28, 2023

[A new system developed by researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) combines non-invasive EEG measurement and artificial intelligence to translate a person’s silent thoughts into text, offering the prospect of practical, accessible, and seamless presence experiences that help those unable to speak because of illness or injury, and revolutionize the way we interact with technologies including prosthetics, robots and many others. See the original version of this story or follow the link to YouTube below for the 4:29 minute demonstration video. A pre-publication version of the NeurIPS conference paper is available on ArXiv. Coverage from Singularity Hub provides additional…
Read more: Future presence: Portable, non-invasive, mind-reading AI turns thoughts into text
Call: “Generative AI Age in Journalism: Unveiling Potential and Challenges in the News Industry Worldwide” issue of Journalism Practice

Published:

December 27, 2023

Call for Papers Journalism Practice Special Issue on Generative AI Age in Journalism: Unveiling Artificial Intelligence’s Potential and Challenges in the News Industry Worldwide https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/jp-generative-ai-age-journalism-unveiling-artificial-intelligences-potential-challenges-news-industry-worldwide/ Guest Editors: Allen Munoriyarwa Department of Media Studies, University of Botswana Department of Communication and Media, University of Johannesburg Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam Digital Media and Society Observatory (DMSO), Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) Deadlines: Abstract Submission: January 5, 2024 Paper Submission: June 30, 2024 Expected Publication Date: Q4 2024 – Q1/2025 In recent years, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in journalism and media production has sparked a…
Read more: Call: “Generative AI Age in Journalism: Unveiling Potential and Challenges in the News Industry Worldwide” issue of Journalism Practice
To protect democracy in the deepfake era, we need to bring in the voices of those defending it at the frontlines

Published:

December 27, 2023

[This essay from the Council on Foreign Relations blog considers the critically important implications of increasingly effective and common presence illusions. See the Deepfakes, Synthetic Media and Generative AI page of the WITNESS website for much more information. –Matthew] [Image: Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, waits to give his speech against the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access oil pipeline during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on September 20, 2016. Credit: Denis Balibouse/Reuters] To Protect Democracy in the Deepfake Era, We Need to Bring in the Voices of Those Defending…
Read more: To protect democracy in the deepfake era, we need to bring in the voices of those defending it at the frontlines
Job: Tenure-track professor in art and technology at School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Published:

December 26, 2023

Call for Applications TENURE-TRACK ASSISTANT PROFESSOR POSITION IN ART AND TECHNOLOGY Department of Art and Technology / Sound Practices (AT/SP) School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) Chicago, IL, USA https://www.saic.edu/sites/default/files/2023-08/Tenure-Track%20Assistant%20Professor%20Position%20in%20Art%20and%20Technology.pdf Deadline for priority consideration: January 8, 2024 The Department of Art and Technology / Sound Practices (AT/SP) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) invites applications for a fulltime, tenure-track Assistant Professor position, beginning in August of 2024. Salary is competitive with peer institutions and commensurate with quality of practice, scholarship, academic research, extent of teaching experience, and current professional standing. The department is seeking…
Read more: Job: Tenure-track professor in art and technology at School of the Art Institute of Chicago

International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

World’s first immersive Elvis AI show to open in London

Call: Philosophy of Avatars: Avatars that represent humans: Moral, legal, and social considerations (workshop)

At ground level: New virtual reality exhibit showcases October 7 atrocities

Call: Shifting Natures Symposium at ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry

Presence implications: AI can make art that feels human. Whose fault is that?

Call: Safety Research special issue: The Use of Extended Reality Technologies in Safety Research

Two engaging end-of-year presence stories presented as graphical essays

Call: In the Thick of Images: Law, History and the Visual Conference

Future presence: Portable, non-invasive, mind-reading AI turns thoughts into text

Call: “Generative AI Age in Journalism: Unveiling Potential and Challenges in the News Industry Worldwide” issue of Journalism Practice

To protect democracy in the deepfake era, we need to bring in the voices of those defending it at the frontlines

Job: Tenure-track professor in art and technology at School of the Art Institute of Chicago

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