In this context, telepresence refers to our exploration of how a shared space constructed through media systems and computer technology can become a site for entering into immersive "temporary physical interaction" across a distance, considering how live performance events in the disciplines of music, dance and theatre become transformed by such interaction among performers, and between performers and audience.

We use the term "embodied telematics" to describe a process that links human physical activity between two or more geographically dispersed sites, through the mediation of an interactive system, creating a shared environment of mutual influence and responsive behaviors. Originally formulated by the artist/theorist Roy Ascott, telematics is "a term used to designate computer-mediated communications networking between geographically dispersed individuals and institutions that are interfaced to data-processing systems. It involves the technology of interaction among human beings and between the human mind and artificial systems of intelligence and perception." As described by UCI software researcher/theorist Paul Dourish, "interaction is an embodied phenomenon", taking place in a setting that "is not merely background, but a fundamental and constitutive component of the activity that takes place."