Anthony Brooks is Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark where he is the founding director/founder of the ‘SensoramaLab” (Virtual Reality, HCI and Playful Learning Complex) and a founding team-member of the ‘Medialogy education’ (Bsc, Msc, PhD) and a section leader, lecturer, coordinator, supervisor, and study board member. He is also lecturer, supervisor and coordinator on the ‘Art and Technology education’ (BA) and study board member. He has been actively working for the European Commission as project evaluator, rapporteur, and expert reviewer for approximately fifteen years. His research has been a catalyst responsible for International, European and National projects which he has led.
Research activity
He has approximately 200 publications. His research is responsible for sizable externally funded national and international (European) projects, a serious-games industry start-up company, and a family of patents resulting from his evolved method and prototypes, e.g. US6893407 “Communication Method and Apparatus”. He is acknowledged as a third culture thinker and “world pioneer in digital media and its use with the disabled community” where creative artistic expression acts as catalyst for new opportunities in practise. His artistic work has been featured at major events around the world, including two Olympic/Paralympics (Atlanta 1996; Sydney 2000), numerous European Cultural capital showcases, and also at more underground events such as the Danish NeWave in New York city 1999. His interactive art installations have been exhibited at numerous Museums of Modern Art (MoMAs). See his Full Publication History.
Community activities
Anthony has been keynote speaker at approximately fifteen international events and he is an ambassador for accessibility alongside being Danish representative for UNESCO’s International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical committee (WG14) on “Entertainment Computing” – specifically under work groups WG14.7 “Art and Entertainment”; WG14.8 “Serious Games”, and WG 14.9 “Game Accessibility”. He works with the European Commission as EU expert examiner. He has been active internationally as a PhD viva examiner over many years. Under the European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) he has steered the International Conference ArtsIT [Arts & Technology, Interactivity and Game Creation] since 2009, including the upcoming 2019 edition in Aalborg, Denmark (see http://artsit.org ).
He will be a keynote speaker at The doctoral retreat for the Digital Media Art PhD (Doutoramento em Média-Arte Digital) – DMAD this July in Óbidos, Portugal and at ICDVRAT – 13th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality & Associated Technologies next September in Serpa, Portugal
Personal history / Biography
Originating from Wales, born into a family with disabled members, at an early age he invented ‘alternative solutions’ for adaptive accessibility and creative ‘control”. In the 1980s he created bespoke instruments and volumetric invisible sensing systems for unencumbered gesture-control of digital media to stimulate meaningful causal interactions that could be tailored to individuals, their needs, preferences and desires alongside the outcome goals of facilitators, therapists, educators etc. A goal was to create adaptable playful, enjoyable, and fun creative experiences for end-users that optimised motivation in participation to increase compliance and adherence to transdisciplinary intervention programmes e.g. in rehabilitation, healthcare wellbeing, quality of life, learning/education, play, entertainment, recreation, and more: Societal impact was targeted. He was the first artist in residence at the Centre for Advanced Visualisation and Interactivity (CAVI) at Aarhus University, Denmark at the end of 1990s. He originated the ZOOM emergent model (Zone of Optimized Motivation) for in-action intervention and on-action analysis and assessment /refinement across fields of healthcare and learning.
Read also an interview with Prof. Anthony Brooks about the ArtsIT conference: An exciting connection between Arts and IT
