Presence and the Aura of Meaningful Places

Abstract
We propose the term aura to enrich the current language for designing and analyzing media experiences, especially when using augmented reality, mixed reality and ubiquitous computing technology. Aura describes the cultural and personal significance that a place (or object) holds for an individual. An MR application can exploit aura to make the user’s experience more compelling or educationally rewarding. Aura provides a necessary complement to the concepts of presence, which is commonly used to evaluate VR applications, and of place, which refers to the more generic significance of places, particularly in CSCW applications. We use the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia to illustrate the concept of aura. A number of research questions about the relationship of aura, presence, and place are suggested.
Reference:
Blair MacIntyre, Jay David Bolter, and Maribeth Gandy (2004) “Presence and the Aura of Meaningful Places” 7th Annual International Workshop on Presence (PRESENCE 2004), Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, 13-15 October 2004.