We delivered the keynote for Day 2 of the Questioning Immersion Seminar at the University of Bergen.

Questioning Immersion

Questioning Immersion was a two-day cross-disciplinary seminar on the theory and design of spatially immersive technologies.

link to the seminar here

Keynote Day 2: Presence in immersive environments: how much does it depend on self-awareness, agency and body ownership? 
Kamilla Bergsnev and Ana Luisa Sánchez Laws, UiT the Arctic University of Norway

It is currently argued that self-awareness, sense of agency, and sense of body ownership are directly linked with the sense of presence (Grassini & Laumann 2020). If this is the case, it would mean that the sense of presence requires a reconsideration of non-semantic learning in its dimensions of intentionality. The way in which correspondences between stimuli are part of learning to orient ourselves in the broad sense of knowing, “being there”, and responding to the environment, would necessarily demand that some form of “aware agency” takes place in the non-conceptual way we relate to the world around us. 

This talk will investigate this issue through a narrative review of current literature on self-awareness, sense of agency and sense of body ownership as moderators or mediators of presence in immersive environments. 

The issue is relevant for the design of technologies for immersion, as understanding these interconnections demands that we reconsider how to incorporate self-awareness-raising, agentic and body-ownership-enhancing design elements. If the answer is that indeed, the sense of presence is positively related to these three factors, this would also imply that we can safely assume that individuals will be able to control the degree to which they want to be “immersed” in the immersive space. If, however, presence is produced by processes beyond self-awareness, agency and body ownership that are not immediately available for regulation by an individuals’ “meaning-making” of his or her situation, we should design immersive experiences so that the user can become more aware and be able to counteract the manipulative potential of such induced presence. That is, we should strive to intentionally create “breaks in presence” (Sánchez-Vives & Slater 2005) and offer experiences that give participants the ability to safely control their desired level of presence.