ABSTRACT
Up until now, the ultimate in mediated presence has often been thought of as being totally immersed in a virtual world-with the assumption that a virtual world is an alternative world to the physical, and in competition with it. In other words, that this illusion of being-created through the experience of a medium-is more-or-less (depending on the degree of presence) the same experience as being in a similar situation in the physical world. Current widescreen surround sound cinemas and home entertainment centers are designed specifi cally to put the observer in the centre of the action, almost as if she were really there. This is the classic phenomenon of “being there,” the perceptual illusion of non-mediation (Lombard & Ditton, 1997). But what happens as new information technologies and their applications evolve is that the world changes-and we ourselves also change. The distinction between the physical and the virtual blurs to an ever greater extent, and we become accustomed and adapt to it-in the manner in which we perceive, respond to, and generally experience the world around us.
