ReMirrorFugue: Examining the Emotional Experience of Presence and (Illusory) Communications Across Time

This paper examines how strategies for simulating social presence across distance can evoke a sense of presence and facilitate illusory interactions across time. We conducted a mixed-methods study with 28 participants, exploring their emotional experience of interacting with decade-old recorded piano performances on MirrorFugue—a player piano enhanced with life-sized projections of the pianist’s hands and body, creating the illusion of a virtual reflection playing the instrument. Data were collected via wearable sensors, questionnaires, and interviews. Results showed that participants felt a strong presence of past pianists, with some experiencing the illusion of two-way communication and an overall increase in connection. The emotional experience was significantly influenced by the participant’s relationship with the recorded pianist and the pianist’s vital status. These findings suggest that telepresence technologies can foster connections with the past, offering spaces for memory recall, self-reflection, and a sense of “time travel.”