Brenda Laurel

Brenda Laurel was participating telematically in the Open Doors 3 event at Doors 3, Wednesday, November 8.

Brenda Laurel is an artist, writer, and researcher in the area of technology and culture at Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto, California. Her employers and consulting clients include Atari, Activision, Apple, LucasArts Entertainment, Fujitsu, Sony Pictures, Paramount Interactive Media, Citibank and the Communication Research Institute of Australia. Her current work focuses on designing interactive media for girls. Ms. Laurel has published extensively in the areas of human-computer interaction, computer-based agents, interactive narrative and virtual reality. She edited "The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design" (Addison-Wesley,1990) and authored "Computers as Theatre" (Addison-Wesley,1993), a challenging book that offers an entirely new perspective upon the development of the modern technologies of computation and communication. In 1993, she co-designed and produced the Placeholder virtual environment project at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Ms. Laurel holds an M.F.A and a PhD in theatre from Ohio State University.

Ms. Laurel is active in several professional and community organisations and is a member of the Board of Governors of the Communication Research Institute of Australia. Her personal interests include theatre, travelling, hiking and storytelling, and she is active in various environmentalist organisations.

In a brief statement to Doors 3, Ms. Laurel states: "The greatest challenge facing people today, I believe, is to transform our relationship with the natural world. Artists using high technology have a special responsibility to lift this issue up. The vital function of art today is to engage our passionate intelligence - all of it, from brain to fingertips - in fiercely envisioning what we want our future to be and exploring what it is about human nature that gives us the power to transform ourselves."