EGENIS seminar: "Striving for Presence on a Hospital Ward: Phenomenology & Re-Embodiment for a Nurse-Operated Telepresence Robot" Prof Luna Dolezal (University of Exeter)

Exploring the phenomenological challenges and opportunities of nurse clinicians that were trained to provide robotic care at a distance, the paper draws on qualitative research and critical reflections generated during a pilot of Välkky in a hospital ward. The paper explores various ways that nurses were ‘striving for presence’, attempting to close the gap between a technologically-mediated remote environment and their immediate field of perception and action. Four modalities of embodied presence will be examined through a phenomenological analysis: (i) presence enabled by technological transparency, where a remote environment is experienced as immediately present without the mediating technology ‘getting in the way’; (ii) presence enabled through skill acquisition, where clinician-operators strive to master technology in order to enable seamless motor-action in a remote environment; (iii) presence felt through affective, intercorporeal and social resonance, where interpersonal presence and relations of care are transmitted through the robot avatar; and (iv) presence enabled through recognition, where nurses strive to have their social and human existence affirmed while operating the robot. Through exploring how experiences of presence were enabled or diminished through Välkky, the limits of the phenomenological experience of technological ‘re-embodiment’ will be explored.

Venue: Byrne House (limited spaces)

Virtual: via Zoom

Register here