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Mantovani, G., & Riva, G. (1999). "Real" presence: How different ontologies generate different criteria for presence, telepresence, and virtual presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 8(5), 540–550. 
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard (25/02/2018, 09:46)   Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard (27/02/2022, 19:21)
Resource type: Journal Article
Peer reviewed
DOI: 10.1162/105474699566459
ID no. (ISBN etc.): 1054-7460
BibTeX citation key: Mantovani1999
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Categories: General
Keywords: Ambiguity, Immersion, Presence, Presence (definition), Reality/Virtuality/Actuality, Self-presence
Creators: Mantovani, Riva
Publisher: MIT Press (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Collection: Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
Resources citing this (Bibliography: WIKINDX Master Bibliography)
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Abstract
"This article claims that the meaning of presence is closely linked to the concept we have of reality, i.e., to the ontology that we more or less explicitly adopt. Different ontological stances support different criteria for presence, telepresence, and virtual presence. We propose a cultural conception of presence that challenges the current idea that experiencing a real or simulated environment deals essentially with perceiving its “objective” physical features. We reject commonsense ingenuous realism and its dualism opposing external reality and internal ideas. In our perspective, presence in an environment, real or simulated, means that individuals can perceive themselves, objects, and other people not only as situated in an external space but also as immersed in a sociocultural web connecting objects, people, and their interactions. This cultural web—structured by artifacts both physical (e.g., the physical components of the computer networks) and ideal (e.g., the social norms that shape the organizational use of the computer networks)—makes possible communication and cooperation among different social actors by granting them a common reference grid. Environments, real and virtual, are not private recesses but public places for meaningful social interaction mediated by artifacts. Experiencing presence in a social environment such as a shared virtual office requires more than the reproduction of the physical features of external reality; it requires awareness of the cultural web that makes meaningful—and therefore visible—both people and objects populating the environment."
  
Notes

Generally supportive of Zahorik and Jenison's (1998) criticism of 'ingenuous realism' (basically Cartesian duality and the notion of external and internal worlds) and thus dismissive of definitions of presence that rely on this ingenuous realism ontology (cf Schloerb) (Schloerb 1995). More supportive of the ecological approach to reality (cf Gibson) but the authors present their own ontological conception of reality as something culturally constructed (and thus presence is culturally constructed).

Incorporates the resolution of ambiguity into the presence equation.



Schloerb, D. W. (1995). A quantitative measure of telepresence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 4(1), 64–80.
Zahorik, P., & Jenison, R. L. (1998). Presence as being-in-the-world. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 7(1), 78–89.
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
Quotes
pp.546–547   In combining ecological perception with cultural psychology, the authors explain the resolution of everyday ambiguity: "Culture is the device that human societies use to reduce the ambiguity intrinsic to everyday situations: the space in which actors' interests and environmental affordances meet is defined and shaped by the mediation exerted by artifacts [...] Ambiguity of everyday situations does not disappear, but it is made tractable by the presence of the cultural tools and by the social negotiations of the meaning of situations that these tools make possible. This can happen to the extent to which an (at least partially) shared frame of reference exists among the participants."   Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
Keywords:   Ambiguity Immersion Presence Reality/Virtuality/Actuality
p.547  
  1. Presence is always mediated by both physical and conceptual tools that belong to a given culture. Physical presence in an environment is in principle no more "real" or more true than telepresence or immersion in a simulated virtual environment.
  2. The criterion for presence does not consist of simply reproducing the conditions of physical presence but in constructing environments in which actors may function in an ecologically valid way. We accept the emphasis of the ecological approach on the adaptive and active dimensions of perception.
  3. Action is essentially social (as knowledge in everyday situations is often distributed among various actors and various artifacts). Human presence in a given situation requires freedom of movement both in the physical environment (locomotion) and in the social environment composed of other actors and objects (task and goal definition, negotiation of the course of action to choose).
  Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
Keywords:   Ambiguity Immersion Presence Reality/Virtuality/Actuality
Paraphrases
p.541  

Disputing Schloerb's (1995) "definition of objective presence as success in completing a task" the authors point out that it is possible to be present in an environment attempting to repair an engine but being unable to fix it. (Perhaps lacking the knowledge or tools to do so.)



Schloerb, D. W. (1995). A quantitative measure of telepresence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 4(1), 64–80.   Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard
Keywords:   Ambiguity Immersion Presence Reality/Virtuality/Actuality
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