The Role of Artefacts in Presence Mediation

Approaches to support computer mediated communication (CMC) have predominantly relied on the face-to-face communication paradigm. However, interaction and coordination can also be supported by different technological artefacts. In fact, most researches [1, 2, 3] related to ethnomethodology have shown that physical and digital artefacts play an important role in supporting effective communication. Because of its physical and material properties (content, appearance and disposition) an artefact can serve as a carrier of information related to mediating presence and coordinative work practices [4, 5]. Some of our previous research has shown that artefacts can be seen as traces, cues and modifications of different activities of distant or co-located interactants [6, 7]. This not only provides feedback to interactants but also triggers new actions on the artifacts. These activities can be (partly) recorded in artifacts and this record can be used to observe presence and to coordinate work. In this poster, I report two cases on artefact-mediated presence. 1) The Panorama system [6, 7] that mediates social presence in a playful and creative way within a work environment, and 2) A work-in-progress system that will supposedly mediate different activities within a meeting room to the geographically distant attendees. Both the cases conceptualize ‘presence’ as reflections that are supported by cues and traces of users’ actions in the specific environment. Since these cues and traces are not explicitly conveyed, but through the technological artefacts, they allow users to construct social and emotional connections with other users within the department (in the first case) and at the same time allow co-workers to co-ordinate their meeting practices in remote meeting scenarios (in the second case).