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Investigating Subjective Structure for Objective Presence

Project description

Investigating the puzzle of senses

We perceive objects through our senses, recognising their independent existence. Understanding the interplay between our perspective and perception poses a key challenge in our relationship with the world. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the I-STOP project investigates how subjectivity influences perceptual experiences in visual and tactile modalities, focusing on sensory fields. It will analyse the role of these fields in shaping our sense of presence and test the hypothesis that sensory fields – while subjective – mediate our perceptual access to objects when sufficiently transparent. The project will develop a questionnaire to empirically test this framework in virtual reality environments, where interface transparency is crucial for perceiving the virtual world as real.

Objective

While presenting us with the external world, our perceptual experiences also give us information about ourselves as perceivers. For instance, we always see the world from a perspective: when we look outward, we are not only aware of the objects and people populating our surroundings, but we are also aware of our own position relative to them. Another example is touch: when we touch an object with our hand, we perceive the object’s texture and shape, but we are also aware of our own fingers against the surface of the object. The phenomenology of many of our perceptual experiences involves, thus, subjective traces. However, perceptual experiences involve yet another dimension: what philosophers have called a “sense of presence,” namely the fact that, in them, the objects, and the external environment in general, are given as existing out there, independently of our perception.

How these subjective and objective dimensions of perception fit together is one of the most puzzling aspects of our perceptual relationship with the world. I-STOP investigates this puzzle. The project will demonstrate how subjectivity structures perceptual experiences, in particular in the visual and the tactile modalities, through the involvement of a sensory field; and will identify the specific contribution that sensory fields make to the sense of presence. I-STOP will generate a systematic comparative analysis of the phenomenologies of vision and touch in order to inquire into the following hypothesis: sensory fields, while having a subjective character, structure our perceptual access to objects and, if transparent to the right amount, actually make presence possible. The project will generate a questionnaire to empirically test this conceptual framework in virtual reality settings, where the transparency of interfaces is essential to our sense that the virtual environment is real.

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Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution
€ 247 553,28
Address
NORREGADE 10
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)