4. Cultural and Social Presence

Unfortunately, the academic communities that respectively research virtual heritage and virtual presence do not often converge. One group has tended to ignore the individual differences and experiential requirements of participants, and the other has tended to conflate culture with society. This chapter highlights problems in the research community’s definitions of presence, and specifically distinguishes Cultural Presence from Social Presence. Although the distinction may initially sound academic, this chapter argues that it is of great importance to participants’ cultural learning, and that it affects the perceived authenticity of their virtual environment experience.Having suggested that the specific cultural aspects of virtual environments require more careful attention from the academic community, this chapter then discusses the usefulness and danger of adherence to photo-realism. This chapter is not an outright attack on realism, but an attempt to show where attempts at realism may obscure other important issues, especially in education.