Abstract
The article presents a brief introduction to the concept of sonic virtuality, a view of sound as a multi-modal, emergent perception that provides a framework that has since been used to provide an explanation of the formation of environments. Additionally, the article uses such concepts to explain the phenomenon of presence, not only in virtual worlds but also in actual worlds. The view put forward is that environment is an emergent perception, formed from the hypothetical modelling of salient worlds of sensory things, and it is in the environment that we feel present. The article ends with some thoughts on the use of biofeedback in computer games as part of the immersive technology designed to facilitate presence in such worlds.
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Notes
- 1.
Although not explained in the text, I assume the ‘present’ in ‘present world’ refers to immediacy, the here-and-now and ‘to-handness’ of objects and events in that world. This is a little problematic as it does not take into account the time delay (often consciously noticeable) between modally different sensory stimuli from the same sensory thing. For example, while the time lag between reflection of light off a sensory object and its impingement on our visual system is perceptually negligible for most practical purposes, a sound wave in air at 20 °C takes a second to travel about 344 m and the speed of travel of odiferous chemicals can be highly variable depending on air currents but is always slower than the speed of light. Thus, our ‘present world’ of sensory objects and events is anything but immediate and certainly it is not synchronized in the apprehension of sensory stimuli from those objects and events. In the perception of sensory things, though, there is a synchronization in the conjoining of variously time-lagged, external sensory stimuli into discrete perceived objects and events. (At 0 °C, this time disparity is even more noticeable because, at that temperature, sound in air travels at about 332 m/s.) This is why I prefer to use ‘salient world’ rather than ‘present world’ because the former phrase shifts the emphasis of perception (and thus the process of environment-forming) away from the perception of stimuli at a particular, immediate point in time to attending to, and perceiving, stimuli across time spans.
- 2.
The concept of such a threshold of an appropriate sensory stimulation level also allows for the suggestion that one is either present or one is absent; there are no half measures when it comes to presence.
- 3.
The Uncanny Valley proposition (Mori 1970) suggests that the human observer will experience negative, uncomfortable feelings at that point where a robot is almost indistinguishable in appearance and behaviour from humans.
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Grimshaw-Aagaard, M. (2019). Sonic Virtuality, Environment, and Presence. In: Braga, J. (eds) Conceiving Virtuality: From Art To Technology. Numanities - Arts and Humanities in Progress, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24751-5_4
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