This thesis discusses the importance of the body in perceptive cognition and human-to-human co-presence and attempts to build an argument, using research in the fields of philosophy, social science, neuroscience, architectural theory, and cultural anthropology. As a researcher, I developed a qualitative field study and embedded myself as a participant with eighteen volunteers in order to obtain first-hand experience and to try and locate for myself in a very visceral way, what constitutes the communicative event between individuals. Combining and comparing my own experience with responses from the participant group, I was able to formulate significant conclusions regarding embodied cognition and use these in the production of a body of work. These, together with my practice-based research and history as a figurative artist, have resulted in an interdisciplinary final body of artwork, titled The Intimacy of Presence.