KEVIN M. BROOKS Ph.D.

http://www.media.mit.edu/~brooks brooks@media.mit.edu mobile - 781-267-3798

Home: 33 Grace Street Malden, MA 02148 USA 781-324-1758

Research interests

Applications of narrative in human interface design, applications of storytelling in design and technology innovation, using various media & multimedia production, nonlinear/metalinear computational narrative, or AI as it applies to creativity, user interface, and design. Creating cool stuff that empowers people, helping them think, create and dream.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999

Dissertation research concerned computational cinematic narrative construction and the design of appropriate software tools to assist writers of nonlinear/metalinear narratives. Title: Metalinear Cinematic Narrative:Theory, Process, and Tool. Advisor: Glorianna Davenport.

M.A. Film Production, Stanford University, 1985

Thesis project was a 30 minute documentary The Making of the Mikado about the inner workings of a community light opera company. Advisor: Kristine Samuelson.

B.S. Communications, Drexel University, 1982

Included multiple courses in computer science and graduate level courses in communications theory.

EMPLOYMENT

Motorola, Inc. – Motorola Labs/Human Interface Labs, Lexington, MA, 1999-present
Principle Staff Researcher/Technology Storyteller: Applying narrative creation and understanding to user interface design for automobile, handheld and television set-top box platforms. Prototyped advanced interfaces for television DVR and programming guide. Used scenario development to build user experience roadmaps for research. Designed and built interface demos using video, graphics and scripting. Used story coaching and scenario planning to aid researchers in innovation development. Worked with teams and managed numerous research projects with interns. Corporate liaison to MIT Media Lab, representing Motorola in various sponsor consortia. 

MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA. 1991-1999
Technical Instructor & Research Assistant/Doctoral Student: As Technical Instructor: Researched and implemented new computer and video production tools for students, staff, and faculty, helped teach video production and HyperCard programming, made significant contributions to ongoing group research in digital movie maps and movie databases. Other interests include computer assisted storytelling and documentary production. As Research Assistant/Dcotoral Student: Doctoral research in the Interactive Cinema Group under Prof. Glorianna Davenport. Studied and collaborated on projects relating to multimedia interface design, AI, narrative structure, and nonlinear storytelling. Thesis project: Agent Stories, a structural design software tool for writers of metalinear stories and movie orchestration and presentation tool. Dissertation title: Metalinear Cinematic Narrative: Theory, Process, and Tool.

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Cambridge MA. 1995-1996
Summer Research Intern: Assisted in the background research, writing and production of an interactive multimedia software prototype, Tired Of Giving In – designed as a narrative model for future multi-user immersive environment projects. Worked under Carol Strohecker, Senior Research Scientist

Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA. 1987-1991
AV/Media Specialist; Multimedia Instructional Designer; & Systems Specialist: As Media Specialist: Coordinated the use of media presentation tools, video production and computers for demonstrating Apple technology at public and private conferences. Special projects include: production of a 2 screen multimedia presentation using a Ken Nordine soundtrack called Think A Thought.; produced and directed a 12 min. experimental video documentary WWDC-The Movie. As Multimedia Instructional Designer: Designed and managed hypermedia projects for the Developer Technical Publications department. Performed all HyperCard scripting for prototypes, participated in feature decisions, designed and evaluated the results of developer feedback to projects. As Systems Specialist: Helped maintain the Macintosh computer network and supported the hardware and software needs for the Product Planning and Evangelism department.

ASK Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA., 1986-1987
Technical Writer, Computer Systems Manager & Video Writer/Director: As Technical Writer: Edited/revised manual for accounts payable software. Collected and organized information from software engineers, redesigned technical flowcharts, and prepared text for the production artists. As Computer Systems Manager: Supported the documentation department's computer hardware and software including PC word processors and VAX and HP minicomputers. Researched new technology including high speed networks, workstations, and peripherals. Programmed in VAX/DCL and VAX/TPU. As Video Writer/Director: Wrote scripts, directed and edited video projects ranging from 10 to 60 minutes long in edited length. Also experienced in video shooting and audio production.

appointments and Affiliations

Industrial Advisory Board, International Conference on Entertainment Computing, 2004

Editorial Committee, Virtual Reality Journal, ed. Spring 2003

Program Committee, Computational Semiotics for Games and New Media, 2002, 2003

Board Member, League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling, 1999-2002

Member of Storytelling in Organizations SIG of the National Storytelling Network, 2001-2004
- board member, 2002, 2003

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

Motorola Fellow, MIT Media Laboratory, 1994-1996

Best Student Paper, Do Story Agents Use Rocking Chairs, ACM Multimedia 1996

TEACHING

Designing User Experiences (DUX) 2007 – half-day tutorial: Storytelling in Business Presentation and Design. Chicago, IL 2007.

Usability Professionals Association 2007 International Conference, Full-day tutorial on storytelling techniques for usability, design and life. Austin, TX, June 2007.

Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Lisbon, Portugal, 2002, 2003, 2004
The Interactive Television Authoring and Production Course. Co-taught nonlinear narrative theory for interactive television in the scriptwriting module of the course.

Professional Story Coach, 1999 to present
Assisting and empowering writers and storytellers to attain their personal goals as artists.

The Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (co-taught)
Elastic Movietime, 1998

Sharing the Fire Storytelling Conference, Boston, MA
Context, Context, Context: Turning Personal Events into Personal Stories, 2004
Creating Stories to Turn Around Racism (co-taught), 2003
Telling Stories Outside the Box: Breaking out of Homophobia (co-taught), 2002
Telling Personal Stories: Fact and Fiction –A workshop for intermediate storytellers (co-taught), 1999
Once Upon My Life–Telling Personal and Adapted Tales (co-taught), 1998

Graduate Film Program, Communications Department, Stanford University, 1983-1984
Various classes on 8mm & 16mm film and video production and post-production.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Usability Bootcamp – training in usability testing techniques. – Bentley College, Waltham, MA 2002

The Role of Narrative in Information Architecture, American Center for Design, Chicago, IL 2001

Project Management for Information Technology, ESI International, Boston, MA 2001

Coaching Coaches, A workshop for professional story coaches, 1999, 2001

Various symposia, workshops, etc., MIT Media Laboratory, 1999-present

Recordings AND INTERACTIVE PROGRAMS

Kiss of Summer – A CD personal stories recorded live in 2006. Available at CD Baby & iTunes.

Industrial research videos for Motorola on automobile driver distraction mitigation interfaces
(Driver Advocate), 2000 & 2003

Crossing the Street, Interactive Cinema Group, Media Laboratory, MIT, 1996

WWDC-The Movie, Apple Computer, 1990

A Step Forward, ASK Computer Systems, 1987

The Making of the Mikado, Stanford University, 1985

INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE AND COMPUTATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

Agent Stories A software tool for designing and presenting metalinear narratives. MIT Media Lab,
1996-1999

Tired of Giving In interactive narrative, Strohecker, C., Brooks, K. M., and Friedlander, L., Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, 1995-1997

Wheel of Life (co-designer, programmer and content contributor)
An immersive story environment and theater installation, MIT Media Lab 1992-1993

Elastic MovieMap of Newbury Street (Newbury St. section)
An interactive map of Newbury Street in downtown Boston, including digital video interviews. MIT Media Lab, 1991-1992

Think A Thought (producer)
A dual screen rhythmic expression of words and graphics. Text by Ken Nordine. Apple Computer, 1990.

WWDC-The Movie (producer/director)
An experimental documentary project involving simultaneous video production, music production, and video post-production using custom built digital/analog editing equipment. Apple Computer 1990

SELECTED LECTURES, TALKS, AND PRESENTATIONS

Designing User Experiences (DUX) 2007 – half-day tutorial: Storytelling in Business Presentation and Design. Chicago, IL 2007.

User Experience Week 2007, presentation: Stone Soup – Stories and Storytelling for Collaboration. Washington DC, August 2007.

Usability Professionals Association 2007 International Conference – full-day tutorial Listening and Telling: The Practice of Storytelling in Modern Times, presented with Laura Packer, Austin, TX 2007

North Carolina Center for Design Innovation – 2007 Digital Arts Symposium. Keynote presentation: A Storyteller in the Technical Court – Telling Stories for Research and Design. Winston-Salem, NC, March, 2007.

American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), Denver Chapter. Invited Talk: Storytelling in Design. Denver, 2006

Usability Professionals Association 2006 International Conference – Plenary Speaker. Presentation title: Stories in the Mirror. Denver, CO., June 2006.

Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Screenings & Seminars, panel presentation Cinema in the new millennium: new screens, devices, and forms, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2005

About, With and For Conference – Advanced practices of user-centered design research. Workshop title: Working at Listening to Support Playful Creation. 2005

ACM Multimedia 2004, Co-leading day-long workshop, Story Representation, Mechanism and Context, New York, October 2004

Joint meeting of the Usability Professionals Association and the Greater Boston SIGCHI, Sept. 2004.

Digital Storytelling Festival, Keynote, Sedona, AZ, June 2004

Usability Bootcamp, Bentley College, Waltham, MA 2004

Multiples of One Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003

Human Computer Interactions International, Crete, Greece, 2003

Storytelling in a Corporate Environment (panel presentation), National Storytelling Conference, Denver, Colorado, 2002

Corey McPherson Nash, Watertown, Massachusetts 2001

Rhode Island School of Design, Graduate Design Program, Providence, Rhode Island 2001

Workshop on Narrative and Interactive Learning Environments, Edinburgh, Scotland 2000

Graduate Multimedia Systems Program, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland 1997

Gothenburg University, Department of Informatics, Gothenburg, Sweden 1997

ACM Hypertext 97, Hypermedia and The Future of Authorship panel, Southampton, England 1997

Workshop on Narrative and Hypermedia, Brighton, England 1997

Intel Corporation, Portland, Oregon 1997

IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, Capri, Italy 1997

ACM Multimedia Conference, Best Student Paper presentation, Boston, Massachusetts 1996

ACM Multimedia Conference, Panel on Workshop on Interactive Narrative, Boston, Massachusetts 1996

ART3000 conference, Les États Généraux de l¹Écriture Multimedia, Paris, France 1995

SELECTED PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS

Navigating Context for Interactive Narrative. In M. Damásio (Ed.), Interactive Television Authoring and Production 2003. Lisbon, Portugal: Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias. (2004)

The Context Quintet: Narrative Elements Applied to Context Awareness. Paper presented at the Human Computer Interactions International, Crete, Greece. (2003, June)

Nonlinear Narrative Structures for Interactive TV. In M. Damásio (Ed.), Interactive Television Authoring and Production 2002 (pp. p43-56). Lisbon: Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias. (2002)

Dancing with Digital Interface Complexity – A Story Approach. IEEE Multimedia, January/February 2002.

Brooks, K. (2001). Pas de deux - The Dance of Digital Design. The Design Management Journal, Spring 2001, pp.10-14.

Storytelling and Computational Narratives – Reaching for the High Bar. Paper presented at the Workshop for Narrative in Interactive Learning Environments, Edinburgh, Scotland. (2000).

Davenport, G., Bradley, B., Agamanolis, S., Barry, B., & Brooks, K. (2000). Synergistic Storyscapes and Constructionist Cinematic Sharing. IBM Systems Journal, vol. 39
(issues 3-4), pg. 456-469.

Strohecker, C., Brooks, K., & Friedlander, L. (2002). Experiments with the theatrical Greek chorus as a model for interactions with computational narrative systems. In M. Mateas & P. Sengers (Eds.), Narrative Intelligence - Advances in Consciousness Research (Vol. 46, pp. p175-188). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Metalinear Cinematic Narrative: Theory, Process, and Tool. Ph.D., MIT, Cambridge. (1999).

Programming Narrative. Paper presented at the IEEE Visual Languages '97, Capri, Italy.

Do Story Agents Use Rocking Chairs? The Theory and Implementation of One Model for Computational Narrative. Paper presented at the ACM Multimedia '96, Boston, MA. (1996)

Agent Stories. Paper presented at the AAAI Spring Symposium Series - Interactive Story Systems: Plot and Character, Stanford University. (1995)

SELECTED PERFORMANCES

First Night Boston, 2000, 2001

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 2001 & 2002

Fray Day, Cambridge, 2001

Information Organized, MIT Media Lab Special Interest Sponsor Group, Cambridge, 2001

Sharing the Fire, Olio performance, 2000

Connecticut Storytelling Festival, New London, 1999

Puppet Showplace Theater, Boston, with Laura Packer and Bruce Marcus, 1999

3 Apples Storytelling Festival, 1998

Sharing the Fire workshop/performance with Joey Talbert, Boston, 1998

Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, 1998

A Day For Sam Storytelling Festival, 1996 & 1997

Tellebration (New York, Cambridge, Rowayton & New Milford, Conn.) 1996-1998, 2001, 2003

Club Passim, Featured performer, Cambridge, 1997