singing the body electric
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Singing the Body ElectricThe Role of Embodiment and Identity in Creating and Performing
Telepresence
Dr. Mark ChildsDr. Aase Knudsen
DIVERSE 2012, July 5th
TELEPRESENCE OR “BEING THERE”
What is telepresence?H
oward Licthm
ann, Telepresence Options, M
ay 16, 2011 htt
p://ww
w.telepresenceoptions.com
/2011/05/_today_we_b
egin_publishing/
A more comprehensive viewChilds, M
. (2010) A conceptual framew
ork for m
ediated environments, Educational Research
52, 2, June 2010, 197–213
Personalisation and adaptation
Personalisation and adaptation
Expansion of SciEthics Interactive
• West Chester University, PA– Kwazulu Natal, SA– Center for Distance Learning, SUNY Empire State
College, NY– National University, CA, USA
• HP Catalyst Program• More partners and more preparation• Extend to an Avatar Driving Licence• Standardised across programmes
(Sort of) standardised programmeBasic Intermediate Advanced social Advanced builder
Creating an accountLogging into virtual worldJoining class group
Editing appearance of avatars
Managing groupsGroup IMs
Uploading materials
Walking and sitting down
Search function Visiting various communities and describing that community in a blog post
Creating buildings structures
Flying, acquiring flight feather
Inventory management Experiment with avatar, be a different sex, ethnicity, species. Be pregnant, tiny, robot.Reflect on experience.
Tweaking the preferences settings
A PERFORMANCE
Presence workshop Lillehammer 2011
• Took place at Didaktikk og Teknologi conference, Lillehammer University College, Norway, 7th to 8th February, 2011
• Consisted of examples of telepresence activities then performance between Aase (physical world) and Gann (Mark’s avatar) in virtual worlds operated from laptop in room.
• Avatar is Coral Sea Dryke by Kazuhiro Aridian
Physical world set-up
Effective for following reasons
• Fulfilled many of the Lichtmann criteria• Interaction convincing due to apparent line of
sight and action/responseAlso• Avatar chosen was that enabled non-verbal
communication• Familiar enough to be part of extended body
schema even with second person view• Emotional element
Enabling presence in VWs
• Extended body schema leads to sense of embodiment, presence and immersion.
• Developing identity leads to social presence and stronger interactions with people.
• Transparency of mediated technology enhances these for performer and audience.
• Embodied cognition depends upon the above factors being well developed; a sense of situation as opposed to location.
• Can change bodies, this changes relationships• Applies to the physical world too.
Cycle of engagement (Caspi and Blau 2008; 339)
High copresence
Sensitive to others’ presence
Experience community
Motivated to project self
Acquire presence skills
Translating to physical world
• Body identity dichotomy explored through “identity tourism” in virtual worlds.
• Modification also possible in physical world.• Aligning actual self with perceived self
enhances presence.• Gender reassignment, tattooing, dying hair ..
All exist on this continuum.• Bring that experience into the physical.
Embodiment and presence
Bodies designed, executed and acting as locus for cognition, interaction, situation in both worlds
Avatar by Kazuhiro Aridian Ratava by Christine Marie Rødahl
Embodiment and presence
Bodies designed, executed and acting as locus for cognition, interaction, situation in both worlds
Summary
• Mistake to think of telepresence as a technological effect, it is about sensation, experience and perception.
• Embodiment and identity also need to be taken into account in physical and virtual.
• Maximising telepresence also requires maximising emotional too.
• Embodiment and identity enhances the experience of immersion and telepresence.
