Action in Hybrid Environments: Why technical interferences do not necessarily 'break' the virtual presence.

The topic of this chapter is the sense of presence in technologically generated environments and the way in which it may be affected by technical interferences. We considered 84 interferences that spontaneously occurred during immersive sessions in virtual environments, such as the entanglement of a wire or a delay in the functioning of the system. Each interference considered here is followed by an interruption in the users' course of action and by a series of attempts at repairing it. Such events are commonly assumed to break the sense of presence in the virtual environment, but the episodes in our collection show that this is too rough an assumption. In particular, any estimation of a shift in presence from one place to another should be preceded by an analysis of the nature of such places. We will argue that presence does not follow pre-defined, objective spatial distinctions, but is tied to those spatial distinctions that are relevant to the ongoing action. Virtual presence encompasses the spatial region, more or less close to the participant, where the action mediated by the virtual technology takes place. Interferences change the distribution of real and digital resources creating a new, contingent configuration of presence to be assessed on a case-by-case basis