Presence, Digital Tools and the Body

Abstract

What happens to presence when action is implemented using a digital tool? A taxonomy of mediated action is presented, distinguishing between first-order mediated action, second-order mediated action and second-order avatar-based mediated action. When produced intuitively these mediated actions have different effects on our experience of body and space (bodily self-consciousness). A successfully learned first-order mediated action produces incorporation, in which the proximal tool extends the peripersonal space of the subject. A successfully learned second-order mediated action produces incarnation, a second peripersonal space centred on the distal tool. When a successfully learned second-order mediated action is implemented through an avatar this may, under certain conditions, produce embodiment as the tool, in which the user actually feels present as the avatar.