When "Real" Seems Mediated: Inverse Presence
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When “Real” Seems Mediated: Inverse Presence
Abstract ble. I think, ‘Oh, my God, am I really here?’ It’s a great
sensation. It’s like a movie.”
As our lives become increasingly dominated by mediated Florida’s First Lady Columba Bush, on her experience
experiences, presence scholars have noted that an increas- in the mansion. (Barrs & Cabrera, 2002)
ing number of these mediated experiences evoke (tele)-
presence, perceptions that ignore or misconstrue the role “And it’s true we are immune, when fact is fiction
of the medium in the experience. In this paper we explore and TV reality. . .”
an interesting countertrend that seems to be occurring as Lyrics from “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” by the rock band
well. In a variety of contexts, people are experiencing not U2. (1982, track 1).
an illusion that a mediated experience is in fact nonmedi-
ated, but the illusion that a nonmediated “real” experience
is mediated. Drawing on news reports and an online sur-
vey, we identify 3 categories of this “illusion of mediation”:
positive (when people perceive natural beauty as medi-
ated), negative (when people perceive a disaster, crime, or
other tragedy such as the events of September 11, 2001, as
mediated), and unusual (when close connections between
people’s “real life” activities and mediated experiences lead
them to confuse the former with the latter). We label this
phenomenon inverse presence and consider its place and
value in a comprehensive theory of presence, its possible
antecedents and consequences, and what it suggests about
the nature of our lives in the 21st century.
“We kept waiting for Arnold [Schwarzenegger] to
march out of the ruins and watch the end credits roll.” Figure 1. Robert Weber, The New Yorker, February 2, 1998.
Anonymous journalist at the World Trade Center in © The New Yorker Collection 1998 Robert Weber from
cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.
New York City, September 11, 2001. (Author, personal
communication, September 11, 2001)
1 Introduction
“I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought I was
watching a movie.” As media scholars and pundits frequently note,
Eva Greenwood, who was watching TV in her Philadel- our lives are increasingly dominated by mediated experi-
phia apartment as a man set another apartment in her
building on fire, then plunged to his death. She saw the
actual fall through her own window. (Kasuba, 2003)
Lydia Reeves Timmins*
Matthew Lombard
“Sometimes at night when I go upstairs in the Department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications, and Mass
governor’s mansion, it’s so romantic. It’s really incredi- Media
Temple University
Presence, Vol. 14, No. 4, August 2005, 492–500 Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA
© 2005 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Correspondence to lydiat@temple.edu
492 PRESENCE: VOLUME 14, NUMBER 4Timmins and Lombard 493
ences—traditional media including the telephone, radio, are increasingly likely and so also merit scholarly atten-
television, film, newspapers, and magazines have been tion.
joined by e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, cell One of the key reasons presence is the subject of
phones, video games, HDTV, the Web, simulator study concerns its potential to affect the emotions,
amusement rides, and, soon, virtual reality. As presence judgment, learning, task performance, and so forth, of
scholars have noted, an increasing number of these me- those who experience it. Ironically, another potential
diated experiences evoke (tele)presence, perceptions effect of having frequent presence experiences may be a
that ignore or misconstrue the role of the medium in susceptibility to experience additional confusions re-
the experience, perceptions that constitute an “illusion garding what is “real” and not, including inverse
of nonmediation” (Lombard & Ditton, 1997). presence. The possibility that presence makes inverse
But as the quotations above suggest, an interesting presence more likely certainly merits study, and has
countertrend seems to be occurring as well. In a variety important implications (discussed below) for the role
of contexts, people are experiencing not an illusion that of technology in our lives.
a mediated experience is in fact nonmediated, but the
illusion that a nonmediated, “real” experience is medi-
3 Explicating Inverse Presence
ated. In this paper we discuss this phenomenon, which
we label inverse presence, and consider its place and value
Chaffee (1991) notes that a good way to define
in a comprehensive theory of presence, its possible ante-
and understand a concept is to identify examples of the
cedents and consequences, and what it suggests about
phenomenon the concept is thought to represent.
the nature of our lives in the 21st century.
Having informally gathered examples from media
reports and personal experiences, in which comments
such as “It felt like a movie” were common, we adopted
2 Why Study Inverse Presence?
a more comprehensive approach by conducting several
searches using Google News (http://news.google.
Presence theory and research have evolved from
com/). Over a period of one year we used the search
simple unidimensional definitions to sophisticated multi-
terms “like a movie,” “like a picture,” and “like a televi-
dimensional ones, and from an intense focus on defin-
sion” to identify media reports that might describe situ-
ing the core concept of presence to understanding its
ations in which people had experienced the inverse of
relationship to other important and related concepts (tele)presence. We also conducted a survey on the
and phenomena (e.g., immersion, involvement, flow, World Wide Web, asking respondents if they ever had
empathy, and consciousness; Lombard & Bracken, an experience during which they felt they were part of a
2003). A better understanding of these concepts and mediated environment.1
phenomena helps us refine our theories regarding pres- We examined 376 results from seven searches con-
ence itself, and inverse presence represents another of ducted between February 2003 and January 2004, and
these key phenomena. divided them into categories. We first excluded stories
As communication and computer technologies ad-
vance we will continue to have not only more frequent 1
The specific question wording was, “Have you ever felt like you
mediated experiences but more frequent presence expe- were living inside or actually experiencing a movie or TV show (or
riences. There’s no reason the increasingly common another medium such as a video game) instead of the real world? If so,
please describe your experience (including when it happened, how it
confusion regarding what is “virtual” (i.e., mediated by felt, etc.) in the space below.” An invitation to complete the survey
technology) and “real” (i.e., nonmediated) should oper- along with the URL was distributed to a convenience sample via uni-
versity listservs; 37 relevant responses were obtained. The goal was not
ate in only one direction. Confusions in which non- to assess the prevalence of inverse-presence experiences but to identify
mediated experiences are mistaken for mediated ones examples of the phenomenon.494 PRESENCE: VOLUME 14, NUMBER 4
that bore no relation to presence or inverse presence, experience while hiking: “The view from [the] moun-
including those that mentioned film preferences (e.g., taintop is like something you’d only see in a movie. . .
“I like a movie that features action” as part of a film re- picture-perfect.” While in some cases the comparison
view), contained references to specific technology (e.g., may simply be a convenient way to communicate a fa-
“like a movie camera” to describe a consumer electron- miliar experience to a listener or reader, in many stories
ics product), and compared one medium to another the nature of the experience is unambiguous. In Steiner
(e.g., identifying satellite radio as being “like a movie (2004), a hunter describes the first day of deer season as
without pictures”). Another group of stories featured she begins to walk the trails in search of a buck:
the use of media experiences only as a reference point or
The trail angled up to a high country lake that re-
shorthand way to communicate information (e.g., a
flected the rocky peak above, a picture perfect post-
Chicago reporter’s reference to the Blackhawks sports
card. The trail continued climbing, and at one point
team’s season as being “like a movie that was intended
I could look down into the blue-green pool I had
to be a drama but turns out to be so bad it’s funny”
passed. Other mountains now framed the scene, an-
(Want a good. . ., 2003).
other picture postcard. I got to the top of the moun-
The remaining 97 stories in the search results fell into
tain and turned to look at what was on the other side,
three categories of reports of people perceiving nonme-
more snow-capped mountains and wildflower-studded
diated experiences as mediated ones:
meadows, more picture postcards. I had seen such
1. Positive—stories in which people experience natu- scenes on TV and in the movies, and in paintings and
ral beauty and perceive it as a picture, nature doc- photographs. Was it real this time or just another imita-
umentary, or other mediated experience (14%; tion? (pp. 45– 47)
n ⫽ 14).
In this and other cases the people having the real,
2. Negative—stories in which people are involved in
nonmediated experience define and describe it as a me-
a disaster, crime, or other tragedy and experience
diated experience. One reason this happens may be be-
it as if it were mediated; many examples featured
cause the intensity and perfection of the natural beauty
quotes from victims saying their experience
make it seem like it must have been created rather than
seemed “like a movie” (48%; n ⫽ 46).
naturally occurring. Most of us have seen paintings,
3. Unusual—stories in which close connections be-
photos, or videos that feature perfect clouds in a bril-
tween people’s “real life” activities and mediated
liant blue sky. But when with our own eyes we see the
experiences lead them to confuse the two. Exam-
sky above us looking the same way, we associate it with,
ples include actors or people in situations that are
and at some level experience it as, a mediated experi-
fantastic (38%; n ⫽ 37).
ence.
In the following we discuss and provide examples of In the second category of inverse-presence examples,
some of the stories (and survey responses) in each of tragic reality is experienced as a mediated, artificial expe-
these inverse-presence categories. rience, usually a movie. A witness to a tour bus crash
In Category 1, the person experiencing inverse pres- that injured 50 people says, “It looked like a movie set”
ence experiences nonmediated beauty in nature as if it (Packer, 2003). The mother of a San Bernardino, Cali-
were mediated. A merchant marine says, “The Middle fornia, man shot and killed by police says, “It’s not real.
East is like a picture in National Geographic come to It’s like something that happened in a movie and not to
life” (Midland man travels. . ., 2003). A columnist de- me” (Schexnayder, 2003). A witness to a police shoot-
scribes a ride on a train through Ohio’s Cuyahoga Val- ing in Yonkers, New York, says, “It was like a video
ley, relating how “a landscape of mythical perfection game. He falls down and says ‘I’m shot, I’m shot’”
unreels like a movie before my hungry eyes” (Bloom, (David, 2003). A respondent to the Web survey recalls
2003). A respondent to the Web survey describes his the experience of being diagnosed with a bipolar disor-Timmins and Lombard 495 der: “I felt like it wasn’t really happening. I felt like I The first author also interviewed people who survived was on a talk show or in an E! True Hollywood story.” the carnage in Manhattan. As they were brought into In many cases when a community suffers a trauma, the triage area, she was able to speak to those who such as a fire or explosion, eyewitnesses tell reporters didn’t require medical treatment. The phrase they re- that the experience was like watching a movie. In Phila- peated was, “This can’t be real.” A woman who de- delphia in January 2003 (Kasuba, 2003), a man set fire scribed seeing people jumping to their deaths compared to his girlfriend’s apartment and then climbed from bal- it to a horror movie she would never have chosen to cony to balcony in the high-rise building, setting other watch. fires until he fell to his death. Hundreds of residents of In the third category of inverse presence, people have that building, as well as people passing by on the street, confusion concerning where mediated experience ends saw the drama unfold before their eyes. The quote at and “real life” begins. Actors experience this “Reality the beginning of this paper is just one of many similar Show” phenomenon when they have the dual experi- comments newspaper and broadcast journalists recorded ence of playing a role that is duplicated in their off- that day. The experience of seeing someone die in real screen life. Actor Bill Paxton appeared in a movie about life is not a common one for most people. But in film exploring the Titanic but he also did deep sea diving to and television fiction it happens frequently. When peo- the wreck. “It was strange, because here I was doing ple see such a shocking event in reality it seems logical something in real life that I pretended to do in a film,” that they confuse it with their familiar mediated experi- Paxton said. “There were times when I was down there, ences. I thought (director) Jim (Cameron) was going to yell, The most dramatic context for this category of ‘Cut!’ and we would go to lunch” (Cameron sails inverse-presence examples is the aftermath of the Sep- back. . . , 2003). The almost seamless, even if momen- tember 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York. The first tary, confusion between diving for a movie role and div- author interviewed fellow journalists and members of ing “for real” makes this an example of an unusual and the public who witnessed the World Trade Center at- perhaps extreme form of inverse presence. Actors and tacks firsthand when she covered the events for the other participants in mediated events, particularly those NBC television station WCAU in Philadelphia. She that involve telling fictional stories, often must “be- heard more than one person make the Arnold Schwar- come” another person, and in the process move back zenegger comment at the beginning of this paper. Oth- and forth between (being present in) mediated and ers commented that the scene looked like “a Spielberg nonmediated realities; the popular Method acting tech- blockbuster.” A reporter on the scene that day wrote in nique developed by Stanislavsky and Strasberg encour- the New York Daily News, “The way people were run- ages actors to “live” a role (director John McGlynn ning, it was like a scene out of ‘Godzilla.’” Another re- notes that “They’re not acting; they’re really there”; porter said, “All I could think of was how much it was Screen Actors Studio, 2003). It seems likely that this like ‘The Blob,’ just this big mass coming at you” makes them more susceptible to the illusions of both (Goldiner, 2001). The first author remembers staring at presence and inverse presence. Actor Matt Dillon tells Manhattan’s skyline at 11 p.m. on September 11th and the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I guess starting as an actor thinking that there was no way the scene before her at age 14, I always see the world as a movie” (Rea, could be real. Manhattan glowed not with the lights of 2003). Broadway and skyscrapers, but with orange fire. With This susceptibility is unlikely limited to actors. Any- the night sky so black and the fire so bright, she felt as if one can have a nonmediated experience that closely she were in a movie theater watching the scene, not that mimics a familiar mediated one. A young soldier at boot she was actually seeing a real event. Many members of camp reflects on an intense experience he had as a raw the journalistic corps discussed how if the real events recruit: “Our CO dismissed us, we did an about-face had been a summer movie, few would have believed it. and everyone screamed ‘Ooh-rah!’ It was like a movie
496 PRESENCE: VOLUME 14, NUMBER 4
moment” (Military term causes. . . , 2003). Two of our the most extreme cases, the individual can indicate
Web-survey respondents reported experiencing this type correctly that s/he is not using technology, but at
of inverse presence. One describes a visit to Dallas, some level and to some degree, her/his perceptions
Texas, and the grassy knoll made famous in President overlook that knowledge and objects, events, entities,
Kennedy’s assassination. He explains that he had seen so and environments are perceived as if the technology
many movies and documentaries that when he actually was involved in the experience.
stood on the spot, “I felt like I was walking onto the set
of a TV show.” Another respondent remembers coming If (tele)presence is the illusion of nonmediation, then
out of high-presence movies and “for a few hours I was inverse presence is the illusion of mediation. Two inter-
not in my body at all, but in another plane in which I related types of illusion of mediation can be identified,
hardly felt at all, or at least in a place where I could not one involving the form of experience and the other its
tell where my feelings ended and where the characters’ content. When an individual says something such as, “it
feelings began.” looked like a postcard” or “it felt like a movie,” they are
reporting similarities in the form of nonmediated and
mediated experiences, and confusion between the two.
4 A Definition When they suggest that the unfolding of events was
“like a movie” (i.e., scripted or artificial) they are point-
The phenomena revealed in the examples above ing to similarities in (and confusion about) the content
are clearly related to presence, and in many ways seem of nonmediated and mediated experience. Ultimately,
to represent the reverse type of experience. when people experience presence they think (at some
The explication of the presence concept by the Inter- level) that the mediated world is “real,” while when
national Society for Presence Research (2003) defines they experience inverse presence, they think (at some
presence, short for telepresence, as level) that reality is mediated. Inverse presence also
seems to frequently include the feeling that the experi-
A psychological state or subjective perception in ence is ephemeral and that there is a trigger somewhere
which even though part or all of an individual’s cur- that will “turn off ” the movie or video game, at which
rent experience is generated by and/or filtered point the person will resume his or her real life. Lom-
through human-made technology, part or all of the bard and Ditton (1997) define presence as “the percep-
individual’s perception fails to accurately acknowledge tual illusion of non-mediation.” Therefore, inverse pres-
the role of the technology in the experience. Except ence can be defined as the perceptual illusion of
in the most extreme cases, the individual can indicate mediation.2
correctly that s/he is using the technology, but at
some level and to some degree, her/his perceptions
overlook that knowledge and objects, events, entities, 5 A Theory of Inverse Presence
and environments are perceived as if the technology
was not involved in the experience. What causes inverse presence? The answer would
seem to lie with presence itself. Although it is likely in
The common element of the examples described part a function of our search strategy, the most com-
above can be stated, in contrast to this definition, as: mon medium people mention when they describe in-
A psychological state or subjective perception in
which even though an individual’s current experience 2
As Lombard and Ditton (1997) note, all experience is mediated
is not generated by and/or filtered through human- by our perceptual apparatus. The perceptual illusions of presence and
inverse presence refer to second-order mediation, or mediation by
made technology, part or all of the individual’s per- human-made technology (International Society for Presence Research,
ception fails to accurately acknowledge this. Except in 2003).Timmins and Lombard 497 verse-presence experiences is film. And although pres- experience. The previous presence experience triggers ence has been identified in a wide range of media and is and accentuates the inverse-presence experience. The thought to be most intensely experienced with sophisti- limited duration of mediated experiences is transferred cated interactive simulations such as those generated in to the new, nonmediated one as well—whether beauty virtual reality, the medium that in 2004 generates the or tragedy, the person feels it is so unreal and unlikely most frequent, intense experiences of presence among that it will suddenly end and “real life” will take over the public is also film. The large-screen, high-resolution again. images, high-fidelity and often multichannel sound, and The range of events and experiences that can evoke the darkened room of the movie theater, when com- inverse presence is unclear, but as filmmaking and pre- bined with believable plot, dialogue, and acting, often sentation (e.g., CGI and IMAX 3-D), virtual reality, transport viewers into a movie’s world such that they and simulation ride technologies evolve and become experience spatial and social presence. At the same time, more available to the public, the number and range of there are two characteristics of the nonmediated experi- presence experiences will likely increase, and the diver- ences that seem to evoke inverse presence: the experi- sity of inverse-presence experiences should increase as ences are compelling and idealized. And these are char- well. acteristics of movie experiences as well. A simple form of the more complex cognitive and Many movies, and the experience of watching movies emotional phenomenon of inverse presence described in general, can reasonably be described as big, special, here involves the immediate perceptual aftereffects of dramatic, involving, engaging, powerful, intense, even certain experiences mediated by technology. For exam- overwhelming—in short, good movies, at least, are ple, in discussing research on the use of bifocal eye- compelling. Movies also present not everyday reality but glasses, Fitzpatrick (2004) notes that on first use, a manufactured, idealized reality. With rare exceptions, “[t]here is a difference in what you perceive visually and films focus on the peaks and valleys of life—not the dull what your hand does when you go to reach for some- repetitive parts but the most unusual and interesting thing.” After a time the brain adjusts to the new medi- events. And plots are devised and revised, scripts are ated reality (the world seen through the eyeglasses), but written and rewritten, scenes are recorded and rere- when a subject removes the bifocals, the brain continues corded until every nuance is as the director envisions. to respond to the unmediated environment as if it were The result is a distilled, idealized reality, a sequence of still mediated, leading to the subject tripping or over- “perfect moments.” This sequence has a beginning, reaching for objects. Similar perceptual aftereffects can middle, and end; viewers know that the event will be occur with virtual reality and other technologies. If you “over” at some point. As with a TV program or VR, the stop using the bifocals or a simulator, for instance, you movie experience ends and real life reasserts its hold. continue to treat the nonmediated reality as you did Most people then have experienced presence as they while you were wearing the glasses or were inside the visited compelling and idealized realities in the movie simulator. You may hold your head or walk in a certain theater. It seems logical to assume that when they have way that is not appropriate or useful outside the medi- an unusual, compelling, idealized (either positive or ated situation. These aftereffects are immediate and negative) experience in their nonmediated life, they as- short-term as well as being more physiological, auto- sociate the nature of the experience with the perceptions matic, and universal than the examples above, but they and emotions they’ve experienced in the movie theater. involve the same illusion of mediation. The other They fall back on their memories, associations, and per- inverse-presence examples are based on the cumulative ceptions from familiar compelling and idealized movie memories people have of mediated experiences. experiences to interpret what is happening. They feel Inverse presence as explicated here is also related to the sensations in nonmediated reality and at some level other types of confusion between and among different associate them with, and perceive them as, a mediated modes of experience. Most of us have had the odd ex-
498 PRESENCE: VOLUME 14, NUMBER 4
perience of not being able to remember whether an 6 Potential Effects of Inverse Presence
event we recall actually occurred in our waking life or
only in a dream. Dream researcher Maurice Merleau- As with most phenomena, inverse presence has the
Ponty (1968) discusses the ways in which dreams in- potential for both positive and negative effects. Unfor-
form waking reality: tunately, unlike presence itself, the potential for the lat-
ter seems to outweigh the former.
Our waking relations with objects and others espe- One positive effect of inverse presence may be its
cially have an (unconscious) character as a matter of function as a defense mechanism. Consumers of media
principle; others are present to us in the way dreams experiences can become desensitized or inured to vio-
are and the way myths are, and this is enough to lence or disaster when they see many portrayals of such
question the cleavage between the real and the imagi- events. So if such a person is involved in a disaster in
nary. (p. 48) real life, he or she may find the experience more familiar
and less threatening, and may recover more quickly.
The effect, and likely the process, seems strikingly
The inverse-presence experience allows the person to
similar to the examples of inverse presence above. One pretend, at least at some level, that the event is not real
news story quotes a Canadian lottery winner saying, “It and not “really” happening; because the event seems
felt like a dream, like I might wake up at any moment” like a mediated experience that is therefore not real, it
(No great urge. . ., 2003). Again there’s more than just can serve to distance the person from, and help him or
a metaphor at work here; the person perceives a very her cope with, the unpleasant reality.
real nonmediated event as if it were mediated not by Despite this potential benefit, inverse presence can lead
technology but by their sleeping brain. As with other to serious negative effects. Fortunately rare, the perception
inverse-presence examples, the words also describe an that the nonmediated world one experiences is in fact me-
ephemeral feeling, a sense that the real experience might diated (and so not real) has led to tragically destructive
vanish like a dream does when we wake (or a movie behavior. The two teenagers who killed their classmates at
does when it ends). Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in 1999
French postmodern scholar Jean Baudrillard (1994) left a video in which they indicated they were “following a
theorizes about a mode of experience he calls hyper re- script they seem to have learned through the entertain-
ality in which distinctions between reality and the unre- ment media—particularly from ultra-violent films and
ality of images (simulations) and signs (simulacra) are video games” (Provenzo, 2000). Of course we can’t know
blurred. He suggests people create the reality they expe- exactly how they felt as they killed their fellow students
rience by using idealized models that have no connec- and teachers, but speculation about the way they used me-
tion to reality. “Unreality no longer resides in the dia suggests that they may have experienced inverse pres-
dream or fantasy, or in the beyond, but in the real’s hal- ence. The “Matrix killers” offered as a defense that they
lucinatory resemblance to itself ” (Baudrillard, 1976, ital- believed they were living in the film’s virtual reality and
ics in original). Theorist Paul Virilio prefers the term that therefore shooting people didn’t really mean they
substitution to simulation: “[N]ew technologies are sub- were killing them (Jackman, 2003).
stituting a virtual reality for an actual reality. . . . We are In much less severe but probably more common
entering a world where there won’t be one but two re- forms, inverse presence may lead to disappointments
alities. . . . One day the virtual world might win over the and missed opportunities as reality that seems mediated
real world” (Wilson, 1994). The increasingly sophisti- turns out not to be as compelling and/or idealized as
cated simulations and substitutions of hyperreality and high-presence mediated experiences. For example, in-
virtual reality can reasonably be expected to lead to con- tense, high-presence experiences of media portrayals of
fusions similar to both presence and inverse presence as romance may lead women or men to approach romantic
described here. situations in their real life as if they were media portray-Timmins and Lombard 499
als, with the unrealistic expectations of a media-derived tive or exotic location) and then after a suitable interval
script running in their heads. When a person perceives expose them to the same or a similar experience (e.g., take
reality at some level as mediated, he or she is likely to them to the location or set the film producers used) and
believe that, as in most mediated portrayals, the “story” interview them to see whether and how the latter experi-
will all work out right in the end. Arnold Schwarzeneg- ence evoked inverse presence.
ger will stride through the city and kill the bad guys (or
rescue the government). The movielike lifestyle of par-
ties and fairy-tale romance at the governor’s mansion 8 Conclusion
will continue “forever” for the “heroine” of the story. A
person who assumes that everything will work out may Mediated experiences increasingly dominate our
fail to take the actions required to ensure that they do. lives. Movies and television already confuse the real and
the mediated. New technology is blurring the line further.
Video games and virtual reality are becoming increasingly
7 Studying Inverse Presence realistic. “Augmented reality” technology is on its way to
the public. Wearable computers will allow people to enter
The consideration of inverse presence here is ex- a news story and see and feel the events the way the jour-
ploratory and suggests the need for more systematic nalist who was there did (Mobile Augmented. . ., 2003),
research. Unfortunately, even compared to presence and no doubt eventually we’ll be able to experience the
itself the nature of inverse presence makes it difficult to events live. As the line between real and mediated gets
study. In addition to in-depth interviewing of those harder to see, presence increases. An important and over-
who report having experienced inverse presence at some looked consequence of this trend is an increasing confu-
point in their lives, researchers might create an environ- sion from the other direction, in which “real life” seems to
ment in which “reality” bears the form and/or content be mediated. People will have more and more trouble dis-
of a compelling and idealized mediated experience and tinguishing reality, and some may not even appreciate that
then study observers’ reactions. Such an experiment there is a difference. It will get harder for people to trust
would require that participants not be told about the their own senses and judgment and it will be more difficult
study or their participation in it in advance. For exam- to impress people with nonmediated experiences. Some
ple, a dramatic chase (including running up escalators people may see themselves as being at the mercy of larger
and jumping from one floor to another) or a dramatic forces, like a character in a video game who can only do as
conversation or argument between members of an at- the player directs. And some may feel they can act as they
tractive “movie star” couple could be staged at a shop- please because they or someone can push a game reset
ping mall or other public space and interviews con- button or start the movie over, so their actions will have
ducted with observers to see whether and how they no lasting consequences.
experienced inverse presence. We can argue that presence is a mostly positive result of
Rather than staging an experience, researchers might the world we live in today and that inverse presence is just
take advantage of one that already exists. Researchers a relatively rare extension of presence. But as the trend
could find a location of natural beauty, or one well known toward more presence and thus more inverse presence ac-
from common mediated experiences (such as the site of celerates, we need to consider a larger concern about the
the Kennedy assassination) and interview passersby about effect of inverse presence on how we perceive and experi-
their reactions to the scene. A less pleasant prospect would ence our world. If people come to see real experience as
be to wait for a tragic event to take place and shortly there- they do most media presentations, as “fake” or “planned”
after talk to the people who saw it. A final possibility or “set up” in some way, what experience will be perceived
would be to provide study participants with a compelling as truly natural and organic rather than as contrived? In a
mediated experience (e.g., an IMAX movie set in a distinc- world of “pseudo-events” (Boorstin, 1961), we are already500 PRESENCE: VOLUME 14, NUMBER 4
seeing the fake masquerading as the real; fake Christmas able from: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/
trees, artificial flavorings and colorings, machines that 20030520/1042361.asp.
generate synthetic smells at the store and at home, lip- Kasuba, E. (2003). “Apartment Fire.” Aired January 15, 2003
synching singers, virtual orchestras, and plastic surgery are on KYW Newsradio 1060AM.
Lombard, M., & Bracken, C. C. (Eds.). (2003). Presence:
only the beginning. It’s only reasonable for us to become
Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 12(4).
more cynical, distrustful, and apathetic about the non-
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