“Being (t)here”: A Case for the Presence of Place in Desktop Virtual Worlds

This paper draws on existing phenomenological discourse of place to examine presence during the experience of virtual worlds. By analysing the occupied and experienced places during the inworld experience – the physical and virtual surroundings, for example – this paper aims to understand how the user feels a sense of presence or a sense of being in a virtual place. I apply rigid phenomenological analysis, which privileges an experiential perspective, to data collected over the course of two and half years of participant observation in Second Life. The complex relation between self and place, enacted by and through the phenomenal body, results in emplacement (being-in-place). Places and bodies engage with each other in a dynamic manner: a body is not simply located in places but places also perdure within bodies. The activation of such places within a user’s body during the inworld session plays a critical role in the creation of presence. Keywords---phenomenology, place, emplacement, embodiment, Second Life.