SocialBRIDGES: Presence
Goodall writes in her book Stage Presence: "If presence is quite literally about the here and now, technologies of representation may be seen as its enemies". But as we will explore in this conference, technological advancements can also shape and deepen our understanding of presence, guiding us through what it means, why and in which contexts it may be a useful concept, and how best to measure and manipulate it.
From the illusion of being in a mediated space to the feeling of sharing a moment with others, presence takes on different forms across disciplines. It is central to discussions in virtual and augmented reality, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, performance studies, and beyond. Are we truly "there" in a virtual world? What makes us feel the presence of others -- physically, socially, or emotionally? Can presence be trained, enhanced, or disrupted?
This conference will bring together creative minds from diverse fields to discuss, debate, and experiment with presence. Through talks, panels, and interactive sessions, we will explore the boundaries between embodiment and perception, illusion and reality, technology and human experience.
Speakers
Prof. Tom Froese, Embodied Cognitive Science Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology OIST
Title: What is the neural basis of recognizing haptic feedback as mediated social touch?
Sensitivity to social contingency refers to an individual’s capacity to recognize when external behavior is dependent on their own behavior, which has been proposed to be at the origins of social perception. We investigated the neural correlates of this capacity using the Perceptual Crossing paradigm, in which pairs of adult are tasked to locate each other in a minimalistic virtual space by using a haptic interface that vibrates when a participant’s avatar overlaps with any other virtual object. Analysis of individual brain activity revealed that successful recognition, specifically in those trials in which the participant recognized the other early, was reflected in weakened large-scale frontoparietal neural coherence in the upper frequency range of 13-55 Hz. Early recognition was also associated with the highest proportion of subjective reports of a clear awareness of the other’s presence. Unexpectedly, this difference in neural coherence was not specific to the moment of recognition but was found to persist for the whole 60 seconds of the trial. Thus, haptic feedback can be recognized as mediated social touch when there is an affordance for reciprocal interaction, and social presence is especially pronounced when the individual perceiver is in a state of open readiness to be affected.
Prof. Robin Zebrowski, Depts. of Philosophy, Psychology, and Computer Science, Beloit College
Title: Presence-As-Absence and Intercorporeality: Being-At-A-Distance
This talk explores the interplay between presence, social cognition, and intercorporeality (the somewhat ineffable feeling of sharing a real space with real lived bodies) and how Zoom (and similar telepresence technologies) have disrupted old categories and created new ways to understand these phenomena. I argue that there’s something fundamental about our experience that is hindered by the use of these mediating technologies, and how that is reflected back in the values we profess (e.g., during the COVID pandemic wanting students in classrooms, wanting to be at the conferences instead of Zooming in, etc.) Importantly, our perceptual skills for direct interaction don’t carry over perfectly to telepresence technologies, although in principle those skills can be developed. In order to do so, we must understand the phenomenon itself. Living bodies in real spaces matter in surprising ways.
Dr. Sara Falcone, Seidenberg School Of Computer Science and Information Systems, Pace University
Title: A multidisciplinary investigation to unravel the complexity of the sense of embodiment in teleoperation
What makes us feel that we are the ones acting, especially when control happens at a distance, through a machine? This talk explores how humans experience the sense of embodiment, particularly agency and ownership, in remote and robotic systems. Drawing on experimental work in teleoperation and human-robot interaction, we will examine how design choices - such as the degree of autonomy, type of control interface, and availability of sensory feedback - can shape these experiences. In systems where control is shared between a human and an autonomous agent, a careful balance is required to maintain the user’s sense of agency. The talk will also highlight how sensory feedback channels - visual, proprioceptive, or haptic - can be used to support situational awareness, reduce cognitive load, and create a more natural and intuitive sense of control. This research contributes to the design of robotic systems that not only function effectively, but also feel meaningfully connected to the human operator.
Dr. Nicolás Hinrichs, Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology; Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Title: A Geometry for Sense-Making
Presence emerges as a dynamic interplay of perception, cognition, and social interaction. In my talk, "A Geometry for Sense-Making," I introduce a geometric framework grounded in participatory sense-making and embodied cognition to elucidate how presence is co-constructed during interpersonal interactions. Employing curvature metrics from geometric network analysis and principles of active inference, I propose innovative methods to quantify and modulate subtle shifts in inter-brain synchrony and embodied coordination. This approach provides a measurable foundation for understanding presence, extending relevance beyond neuroscience to virtual reality, social robotics, and performance studies. By conceptualizing presence geometrically, my framework not only bridges theoretical perspectives but also enables practical manipulation and measurement of embodied experiences, enriching interdisciplinary discussions on human connectivity and experiential realism.
Prof. Beliz Güçbilmez, Department of Theatre, Ankara University
Title: The Presence Tense: A Collapse and a Call to Design
This paper compares two moments in the conceptual life of presence. The first is its heyday in performance theory, where presence rose as protest—against theatre, against mask, against fiction. The second, more recent moment reveals presence calcified into doctrine: shaped by digital immediacy and neoliberal self-performance. What began as critique hardens into rawism—an ideology that pursues the unfiltered and the confessional for affect.
We now inhabit what I call the presence tense —a cultural mood that privileges monologue over dialogue and immediacy over reflection. The result is a collapse between art and life, where fiction’s generative distance disappears. This aesthetic turn mirrors a political one: under the faltering sign of representational democracy, the image of the individual eclipses the possibility of coexisting subjects.
How, then, to restore distance and relationality? Against the flattening immediacy of the presence tense—a shift from a dimensional world to the surface of the screen—this paper reclaims metaphor as a design principle and way of thinking. Metaphor holds tension, links the unlike, and restores distance as a condition for meaning. In an age of speed and drift, it defers. It offers time to ponder. Holding on to the metaphorical mind is an invitation to compose relation.
Prof. Andrea Stevenson Won, Cornell University
Title: The Potential of Co-Embodiment for Hypersocial Interactions in Hybrid Meetings
Face-to-face meetings have long been a gold standard for sharing information and building connections. Ideas can be explored in real-time, misunderstandings can be quickly clarified, and complex concepts can be effectively conveyed. However, not everyone is able to attend such gatherings due to travel costs, scheduling conflicts, geographical barriers, or accessibility issues. Fully virtual conferences, although potentially a high presence medium, may also pose barriers to access. In hybrid gatherings, remote participants are sometimes siloed and unable to fully participate, depriving them and the research community of the opportunity to share their insights and to collaborate. To address this issue, we describe an early prototype for interactions based on co-embodiment. We build on existing work in accessibility, novel embodiment and remote collaboration. These new forms of interaction leverage social touch and other non-visual communication methods to create new forms of social presence.