KEVIN M. BROOKS Ph.D.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Applications of narrative in human interface design and innovation using various media & multimedia production. Conceiving and prototyping tools, services and interfaces for IPTV and computational narrative. 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: 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. - Human Interface Research/User Experience Design, Lowell, MA. 1999-present
Principle Staff Researcher/Technology Storyteller: Prototyping, supporting and leading UX design for IPTV platform applications. 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
Research Assistant/Dcotoral Student: Completed 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: Metalinear Cinematic Narrative: Theory, Process, and Tool. Available at www.media.mit.edu/~brooks
Technical Instructor: As Technical Instructor: Researched and implemented new computer and video production tools for students, staff, and faculty, helped teach video production and computer scripting language, made significant contributions to ongoing group research in digital movie maps and movie databases. Other interests include computer assisted storytelling and documentary production.

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
Media Specialist: Coordinated the use of media presentation tools, video production and computers for demonstrating Apple technology at public and private conferences. Special projects included: production of a two-screen multimedia presentation entitled Think A Thought, using a Ken Nordine soundtrack; produced and directed a 12 min. experimental video documentary WWDC-The Movie.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.

APPOINTMENTS AND AFFILIATIONS

Board of Advisors, Kenan Institute for the Arts, Winston Salem, NC, 2008-present
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, 2009
- 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. [http://dux2007.com/index.php]

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, 2003, 2004, 2005
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
Telling Bracketed Stories, Warwick, RI 2009
Context, Context, Context: Turning Personal Events into Personal Stories, Cambridge, MA 2004
Creating Stories to Turn Around Racism (co-taught), Cambridge, MA 2003
Telling Stories Outside the Box: Breaking out of Homophobia (co-taught), Cambridge, MA 2002
Telling Personal Stories: Fact and Fiction -A workshop for intermediate storytellers (co-taught), Boston, MA 1999
Once Upon My Life-Telling Personal and Adapted Tales (co-taught), Boston, MA 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 of personal stories recorded live in 2006. Available at cdbaby.com and iTunes Music Store

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, An 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, WORKSHOPS AND PRESENTATIONS

User Experience Week 2008, 3-hour workshop Storytelling for User Experience Design. San Francisco, CA, August 2008.

Designing User Experiences (DUX) 2007 - half-day tutorial: Storytelling in Business Presentation and Design. Chicago, IL 2007. [http://dux2007.com/index.php]

User Experience Week 2007, presentation: Stone Soup - Stories and Storytelling for Collaboration. Washington DC, August 2007. [http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/2007/aug/]

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.
[https://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_conference/program/2007/?type=Tutorial]

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: Stories in the Mirror. Denver, CO., June 2006. [http://www.upassoc.org/conferences_and_events/upa_conference/2006/speakers/index.html]

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 - on advanced practices of user-centered design research. Workshop title: Working at Listening to Support Playful Creation. 2005.

ACM Multimedia 2004, Co-led day-long workshop, Story Representation, Mechanism and Context, Columbia University, New York, NY October 2004.

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

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

Multiples of One Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003.

Human Computer Interactions International, Crete, Greece, 2003.

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

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 pres.), 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 l'Écriture Multimedia, Paris, France 1995.

SELECTED PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS

Storytelling for User Experience Design, co-author of forthcoming book with Whitney Quesenbery, anticipated completion end of 2009. http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/storytelling/

Creating Stories - Storytelling in the age of digital video. User Experience, Volume 3, pages 15-16. (2004, Winter).

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.

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).

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

Experiments with the theatrical Greek chorus as a model for interactions with computational narrative systems Strohecker, C., Brooks, K., & Friedlander, L. (2002).. 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 1997, Capri, Italy.

Do Story Agents Use Rocking Chairs? The Theory and Implementation of One Model for Computational Narrative. Best Student 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, 2005; Digital Storytelling Festival 2004, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 2001 & 2002; Fray Day, Cambridge, MA 2001; Information Organized, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA, 2001; Sharing the Fire, N.E. Storytelling Conference, workshop/performance with Joey Talbert, 1998, Olio performance, 2000; Connecticut Storytelling Festival, New London, 1999; Puppet Showplace Theater, Boston, with Laura Packer and Bruce Marcus, 1999; Three Apples Storytelling Festival, 1998, 2006; Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, 1998; A Day For Sam Storytelling Festival, 1996 & 1997; Tellebration - NYC, Cambridge, MA, Rowayton & New Milford, CT 1996-1998, 2001, 2003; Club Passim, featured performer, Cambridge, 1997.

REFERENCES
(Furnished upon request)