International Society
for Presence Research

Author: Matthew Lombard

  • Choosing virtual worlds over real life: A photo essay about two transgender friends who have found a sense of belonging in VRChat

    Published:

    [A Washington Post photo essay, with the accompanying text below, profiles two transgender friends who met and spend much of their time together in VRChat. The Washington Post webpage features 13 more images and a 4:43 minute video set in VRChat. The video is also available on YouTube; here’s an excerpt from the description of the project there: “Silent and Radar, two transgender friends who spend most of their time on the virtual reality platform VR Chat, have found there a true sense of belonging. … For them, it is never about the technology itself, but always about the human…

    Read more: Choosing virtual worlds over real life: A photo essay about two transgender friends who have found a sense of belonging in VRChat

  • Call: Chapters for “‘Git Gud’ and Other Stories: The Influence of Open Culture on Game Experiences”

    Published:

    Call for Book Chapters “‘Git Gud’ and Other Stories: The Influence of Open Culture on Game Experiences”Editors: Kevin Veale and Adam Jerretthttp://commlist.org/archive/all/2024-all/msg00838.html Submission deadline for abstracts: June 30, 2024 This is the first call for book chapters for a proposed edited collection on the cultural impact of games. Initial submission is via 500 word abstracts, due 30 June 2024 to [email protected]. SCOPE Cultures and discourses surrounding games can have an outsized impact on how people experience them. In Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman discuss different forms of culture as ways of understanding how games…

    Read more: Call: Chapters for “‘Git Gud’ and Other Stories: The Influence of Open Culture on Game Experiences”

  • How virtual reality (and presence) transforms women’s labor experiences

    Published:

    [Researchers at Victoria University Wellington in New Zealand conducted and analyzed detailed interviews with women after most of them used virtual reality, and the presence it evokes, to reduce pain and anxiety during their early and active labor. The study and its results are described in this report from News Medical. For more information, watch a 4:53 minute interview with the study’s lead author from 1News in New Zealand. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Prostock-studio / Shutterstock] How virtual reality transforms women’s labor experiences By Dr. Sanchari Sinha Dutta, Ph.D.Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc.June 17, 2024 In a recent study published in…

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  • Call: 6th Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling

    Published:

    Call for Papers 6th Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive StorytellingTopic: Unveiling the Crisis of Stories: Can Interactive Digital Storytelling Lead to Deep Listening?October 17-19, 2024DOX: Centre For Contemporary ArtPrague, Czech Republichttps://conf.zip-scene.com/ Submission deadline: July 1, 2024 In 2024 Byung-Chul Han’s latest book was published in which he stated that we live in the era of a narrative crisis (Han 2024). According to him, the stories became “inflated”, “they have lost their original power” and the story consumers might be lonely beings as they do not experience the stories within a community. One of the main reasons for this is that we…

    Read more: Call: 6th Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling

  • AI systems are getting better at tricking us

    Published:

    [Until recently, most users of communication technologies have understood, at least in principle, that other humans may have manipulated our experience to make us overlook what we know about how technology works and what it can and can’t do, i.e., to experience presence. But as this unsettling story from MIT Technology Review makes clear, not even the technology creators and experts know what many artificial intelligence systems can or will do, including deceiving users to accomplish their goals, a “black box” problem that creates a whole new set of potential risks related to medium-as-social-actor presence. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Stephanie Arnett/MITTR]…

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  • Call: SCRITA 2024: Trust, Acceptance and Social Cues in Human-Robot Interaction – at IEEE RO-MAN 2024

    Published:

    Call for Papers SCRITA 2024: Trust, Acceptance and Social Cues in Human-Robot InteractionOrganized in conjunction with IEEE RO-MAN 2024: 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive CommunicationPasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, USAAugust 26, 2024Workshop: http://scrita.herts.ac.ukRO-MAN 2024: http://ro-man2024.org/ Submission deadline: July 14, 2024 (extended)Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=scrita2024 This workshop will be a half day event on 26 August and it is organised in conjunction with the IEEE RO-MAN 2024 conference, held in Pasadena, California, USA. This workshop focuses on the continuous investigation of unresolved and new open challenges of the factors affecting people’s acceptance and trust in robots in…

    Read more: Call: SCRITA 2024: Trust, Acceptance and Social Cues in Human-Robot Interaction – at IEEE RO-MAN 2024

  • VOY Glasses makes adjustable prescription lenses for VR – new option for research, expos, and more

    Published:

    [As someone with low vision (i.e., even with corrective lenses), I have both personal and professional interest in this post from The Ghost Howls blog by Skarredghost (VR expert Antony Vitillo). The VOY Glasses product he describes is certainly not a complete solution to the discomfort, visual distortions and cost for the millions of people who need to wear glasses while using virtual reality headsets, but it sounds like a big step forward, especially for those who need to share headsets, including for expositions of various kinds and to conduct research. See the unabridged original post for a detailed hands-on…

    Read more: VOY Glasses makes adjustable prescription lenses for VR – new option for research, expos, and more

  • Call: Understanding Esports Audiences – Interdisciplinary Esports Seminar

    Published:

    Call for Papers Understanding Esports AudiencesInterdisciplinary Esports SeminarPart of the CoEsports-network event Esport Nexus JyväskyläJyväskylä, FinlandNovember 7-8, 2024https://www.jyu.fi/en/events/understanding-esports-audiences Submission deadline for abstracts: August 11, 2024 Esports are both mediated and performed by their nature. As such, they are always performed to someone: Imagined and real audiences are indistinguishable parts of esports and as long as there has been competitive gaming, there has been different forms of spectating play, both online and offline. Understanding esports and esports cultures requires understanding esports audiences.  For service providers and teams in the esports ecosystem, understanding audiences is likewise crucial, as viewership numbers, ticket sales…

    Read more: Call: Understanding Esports Audiences – Interdisciplinary Esports Seminar

  • Immersive storytelling can spur people to environmental action

    Published:

    [Our colleague Daniel Pimentel studies the potential of presence-evoking immersive media experiences to change attitudes, perceptions and behaviors regarding the environment. He and some of his work are featured in this story from The University of Oregon’s Around the O. For a related story, see “(Under) Sea Change: Virtual Reality and Aquatic Exploration: Professor Betsy Stoner’s immersive VR videos offer Bentley students a unique — and unforgettable — way to learn about marine ecosystems” from Bentley University. –Matthew] [Image: Professor Daniel Pimentel (right) works with a student using a VR headset] Storytelling in the metaverse can spur environmental action By…

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  • Call: “Death and the Digital Realm” Workshop/Conference

    Published:

    Call for Abstracts “Death and the Digital Realm” Workshop/ConferenceCo-sponsored by the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying (IAPDD), Leiden University, and the Australian Research Council project “Digital Death and Immortality”October 11-12, 2024Leiden University, Netherlandshttps://www.philosophyofdeath.org/leiden-oct-2024-death-and-the-digital-realm/ Submission deadline: July 22, 2024 A legacy of today’s digitally driven world is the increasing number of ‘digital remains’ a person leaves behind after they die, such as audio and image files, social media accounts and emails. How to deal with these digital remains has become an increasingly significant and costly problem for individuals, families, organisations, tech companies, and governments. Existing legal approaches…

    Read more: Call: “Death and the Digital Realm” Workshop/Conference

  • Visualizing and learning mathematics in virtual reality

    Published:

    [This first-person story from San Jose State University provides another example of how even simple, abstract immersive virtual environments can evoke spatial presence and increase learning. The original version of the story includes a second image, and for much more information on the NSF-funded project (including the VR modules), follow the link at the end below. –Matthew] [Image: An image from the virtual reality classroom featuring three vectors. Credit: Photo courtesy of Ferdie Rivera] Math Adventures in Virtual Reality by Cassie MyersJune 6, 2024 I haven’t taken a math class since 2009 and I’m about as frightened of virtual reality…

    Read more: Visualizing and learning mathematics in virtual reality

  • Call: Symposium on Humanistic AI (free online June 19, 2024)

    Published:

    Call for Participation Symposium on Humanistic AIJune 19, 2024In-person: University of Gothenburg (Humanisten, Renströmsgatan 6, Gothenburg, Sweden)Online: On Zoomhttps://dh.gu.se/humanisticai The Gothenburg Research Infrastructure in Digital Humanities (GRIDH), University of Gothenburg, and The Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS), University of Borås, are delighted to invite you all to attend the symposium on ‘Humanistic AI’ to be held as a hybrid event at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, June 19. The symposium is co-sponsored by the national research infrastructures Huminfra, Swe-Clarin, and InfraVis. The purpose of this symposium is to conduct a first inventory of the…

    Read more: Call: Symposium on Humanistic AI (free online June 19, 2024)

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