'Real' Presence: How Different Ontologies Generate Different Criteria for Presence, Telepresence, and Virtual Presence

This article aims at showing that the meaning of ‘presence’ is closely linked to the concept we have of reality, in particular, to the ontology which we more or less explicitly adopt, and that different ontological positions generate different definitions of ‘presence’, ‘telepresence’ and ‘virtual presence’. This leads us to propose a ‘cultural’ concept of presence as a social construction, based on a view of reality typical of social constructionism. Lying at the base of this view are two elements which guarantee an elevated sense of presence: a cultural framework and the possibility of negotiation, both of actions and of their meaning. Within this view, experiencing presence and telepresence does not depend so much on the faithfulness of the reproduction of ‘physical’ aspects of ‘external reality’ – which is also a social production, and not a primitive or ‘natural’ fact – as on the capacity of simulation to produce a context in which social actors may communicate and cooperate.