Presence, Interaction and 'Data Space'
MG Leggett · OPUS - Open Publications of UTS Scholars (University of Technology Sydney) · 2004
This paper will examine the concept of 'data space' and sentient 'presence' in relation to practice-based research being pursued by myself and others working in the institutional space that lies between the disciplines of art and science.It will consider the broader Western cultural context for the idea of presence and the contemporary literature produced by presence researchers.The artefacts of three contemporary artists working with presence in the physical spaces of public museums and galleries, will be described in the context of telepresence in the domain of cyberspace oy Ascott in the early 1990s described a culture developing in which its creators became part of a complex and widely distributed system.It involved both human and artificial cognition and perception and was 'an art that is emergent from a multiplicity of interactions in data space' (Ascott 1993, 261).This paper will examine the concept of 'data space' and sentient 'presence' in relation to an art practice being pursued by myself and others working in the institutional space that lies between the disciplines of art and science.It will consider the broader Western cultural context for the idea of presence, before briefly surveying contemporary literature produced by presence researchers.The third section will move on to evaluate the practice-based research of three contemporary artists in relation to the two topics.Whilst many artists and designers have been developing knowledge of data space and telepresence in the domain of cyberspace, many others have continued working in museums and galleries, presenting in public physical spaces, other kinds of 'multiplicity of interactions in data space'. Presence in ContextThe cultural framework into which the notion of telepresence was delivered had already developed a rich set of written and oral language codes around the word presence:• ' a tangible presence'• 'establishing a presence'• 'an eminent presence'• 'a military presence'• 'presence of mind'• 'mindfulness'• 'déjà vu' (presence already / before / previously experienced)• 'aura' (Latin -a breeze; invisible essence)• 'virtual presence'• 'a microphone presence'• 'being there'• 'here and now' Presence in English-speaking cultures as indicated in this list, is rather more than simply being physically present.Furthermore, in heightened states of consciousness, such as when meditating, the 'here and now' is greatly amplified; or, with the extra-sensory abilities of psychic mediums, the presence of spiritual beings is established, apparently.Presence researchers, largely engaged in engineering presence for the 'virtual environments industry' (Prothero 1995) cautiously maintain: "We are conscious and in an external world", or "…bodily in an externallyexisting world…", or "..embodied in an external world…" (Waterworth & Waterworth 2003).