presentation slides for ARIN2600 about the idea of space and time and our perceptions of the concept of telepresence

1. Technology and Space
Ariana Djajaputra

2. Herbert Hrachovec: ‘Mediated
Presence’
The hype surrounding tele-presence deserves to be taken
1.
seriously.
William J. Mitchell – cyberspace: “a figure of speech that has emerged to cover a gap
–
in our language”,
Gerald M. Karam - tele-presence as “art of enabling social proximity despite
–
geographical or temporal distances through the integration of computers, audio-
visual, and tele-communicative technologies.”
Florian Rotzer - “the disappearance of distance and duration … space traffic
–
cancels out all boundaries between cultures … a pluralization and relativization of
reality”.
We cannot afford current, easy explanations of tele-presence.
2.
Tele-presence is supposed to eliminate distance.
–
Paul Virilio complains that: “closer to what is far away than to what is just beside us,
–
we are becoming progressively detached from ourselves.”
Single minded to say that tele-presence abolishes ideas of duration and distance
–

3. Herbert Hrachovec: ‘Mediated
Presence’
3. Our web of belief is under stress. Tele-presence calls for a re-
examination of some basic concepts in epistemology.
Epistemology: as the theory of knowledge is a branch of philosophy concerned with
–
the nature and limitation of knowledge.
The key ingredient in any epistemological account is the use of signs. dramatic change
–
on the level of technological mediums allowing us to enhance the meanings of sign
systems. Classical epistemology distinguishes between sensual affections and
conceptual activity. It does not provide a place for cognitive content transmitted by
instant tele-mediation.
4. Presence refers both to a mode of time and to a spatial quality. This
link-up is under serious stress and should be used with care.
Telephone, radio, TV and the Internet offer a kind of semiotic globalization, i.e. they
–
provide regimes of symbols that are no longer governed by the constraints common to
ordinary speech, writing and print.
representational immediacy: instant availability of a set of symbols around the globe at
–
any given time
An Internet chat proceeds in real time, yet the chat room is a software construct. The
–
category of being present in a chat divides into sharing the actual moment and
inhabiting a virtual environment.

4. Herbert Hrachovec: ‘Mediated
Presence’
5. Life originates in the Here and Now. When its symmetry is
broken, the likely result is information overload.
Presence in temporal actuality and the challenge is to establish its
–
presense against the many facets of information channels that create
another environment, the virtual world.
6. Symbolic systems depend on material signifiers. Ubiquitous
digital telecommunication disturbs many of their familiar
patterns.
scholars have become aware of the close fit between traditional means of
–
communications and their informational content.
tele-presence, electronic information processing blurs previously natural
–
distinctions, which is why it is important to clearly distinguish between
technological devices.
Photos and film previously seen as ersults of chemical process, now with new

media technologies there is no distinguishing between appearance and role

5. Herbert Hrachovec: ‘Mediated
Presence’
7. Several defining distinctions between established types of
communication are no longer well-founded.
Impossible to guess future path of wireless transmissions.
–
E.g. radio transmissions can easily be transmitted over limitless plains to
–
reach a wider audience.
next generation mobile phones, employing new technologies to boost
–
performance and increase available technologies, there is no telling where
it will all lead in the future.
8. To cope with mediated presence a new kind of geography will
have to be developed.
The current stance of telecommunication imposes different rules on verbal
–
symbolic content.
relatively modest implications of tele-presence; challenges we have had
–
half a century to face. Is tele-presence eliminating ideas of time and space
or simply creating a new media for it to take place?

6. Herbert Hrachovec: ‘Mediated
Presence’
9. History is impossible without bodies,
which are impossible without distance.
moon landing was a historical moment,
–
demonstrating how, at a certain date, the entire
globe could be considered one united location.
2001 terrorist attacks: private mobile phones
–
provided immediate responses to an ongoing
terrorist attack.
Suggestions of simultaneity and omnipresence in
–
the not too distant future

7. Cisco Technologies
Create internet solutions that make network

information available anytime, anywhere
Emerging as a secure platform for delivering

the customized and personalized experience
that 21st century users expect
Cisco Tele-presence Magic -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcfNC_x0VvE