WITNESSED PRESENCE

The perceived presence of a person plays a crucial role in the social organization of communities. In a street, in a village, in a school, in a hospital, at work, we see a person pass by and understand all kinds of things about this person. We realize whether this person looks healthy and stable, kind or threatening, whether he is moving faster or slower than we do, whether the person is anticipating our own behaviour. In our peripheral perception we see a lot of people doing numerous things simultaneously and we take this information into consideration in enacting our being, in orchestrating our own presence. When thinking about the design of presence in which technology plays a crucial role, this layer of perception of others, and orchestrating one's own presence, requires attention.