Brenda Laurel

Brenda Kay Laurel was born on November 20, 1950, in Columbus, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Arts from DePauw University, and her Masters of Fine Arts as well as her Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Her Ph.D. dissertation was published in 1986, titled "Toward the Design of a Computer-Based Interactive Fantasy System", and would form the basis of her 1991 book "Computers as Theater".{{Cite book|title=Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play|last=Marie|first=Meagan|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|year=2018|isbn=978-0241395066|pages=20}}{{cite thesis |last1=Laurel |first1=Brenda |title=Toward the design of a computer-based interactive fantasy system |date=1986 |url=http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487265143146814 }}

Laurel's first games were for the CyberVision 2001 platform, where she worked as a designer, programmer, and manager of educational product design from 1976–1979.{{Cite news|url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/audio/the-history-of-a-forgotten-computer---part-1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427101751/http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MattPowers/20140425/215846/The_History_of_a_Forgotten_Computer__PART_1.php|url-status=live|archive-date=April 27, 2014|title=The History of a Forgotten Computer – PART 1|access-date=2018-03-29|language=en}} She then moved to Atari as a software specialist, later becoming manager of the Home Computer Division for Software Strategy and Marketing, where she worked from 1980 to 1983. After finishing her Ph.D., Laurel worked for Activision from 1985 to 1987.{{Cite book|title=Brenda Laurel : pioneering games for girls|last=A.|first=Kocurek, Carly|isbn=9781501319778|location=New York|oclc=974487356|date = 2017-02-09}} In the late 1980s and early 1990s she worked as a creative consultant on a number of LucasArts Entertainment games, and Chris Crawford's Balance of the Planet. During this time Laurel also co-founded Telepresence Research, Inc., and became a research staff member at the Interval Research Corporation where she worked on research investigating the relationship between gender and technology.

She is also a board member at several companies and organizations.

{{main|Purple Moon}}

As one of the earliest female game designers, Laurel became active in writing on the topic of developing video games for girls. She posited that while the early video game industry focused almost exclusively upon developing products aimed at young men, girls were not inherently disinterested in the medium. Rather, girls were simply interested in different kinds of gaming experiences. Her research suggested that young women tended to prefer experiences based around complex social interaction, verbal skills, and transmedia.{{cite magazine |last1=Beato |first1=G. |title=Girl Games |magazine=Wired |date=April 1997 |volume=5 |issue=4 |url=http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive//5.04/es_girlgames.html |access-date=7 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021113030/http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/5.04/es_girlgames.html |archive-date=21 October 2014 |url-status=dead }}

{{Blockquote|text=The game business arose from computer programs that were written by and for young men in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They worked so well that they formed a very lucrative industry fairly quickly. But what worked for that demographic absolutely did not work for most girls and women.|sign=Brenda Laurel|source=Wired Magazine }}

In 1996, Laurel founded Purple Moon, a software company focused on creating games aimed at young girls between the ages of 8 and 14.{{cite book |title=Cyberliteracy: navigating the Internet with awareness |last=Gurak |first=Laura J. |author-link=Laura J. Gurak |year=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-08979-0 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TltFOFTPQCgC&q=%22Purple+Moon%22+%22Brenda+Laurel%22&pg=PA75}}{{cite book |last=Cassell and Jenkins |first=Justine and Henry |title=From Barbie to Mortal Kombat |year=2000 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0262531689}} Laurel's vision was to create games for girls that had a greater focus on real life decision-making rather than appearances and materiality.Moggridge, Bill, "Chapter 5 Play-Interviews with Bing Gordon, Brendan Boyle, Brenda Laurel, and Will Wright" Designing Interactions, The MIT Press 2014. The company was an experiment in turning research on girl's gaming preferences into marketable video games. The firm produced games designed around storytelling, open-ended exploration, and rehearsing realistic scenarios from one's day-to-day life, as opposed to competitive games featuring scores and timed segments.{{cite web |last1=Hernandez |first1=Patricia |title=She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant |url=http://kotaku.com/5913019/she-tried-to-make-good-video-games-for-girls-whatever-that-meant |website=Kotaku |date=28 May 2012 |access-date=8 March 2015}} The company produced ten games primarily divided into two series: "Rockett", which focused around a young girl's daily interactions, and the more meditative "Secret Path" series. Purple Moon was eventually acquired by Mattel in 1999, but was later closed.Gurak, 2001, p. 77Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology – 2006 0262195364 p352 "Secret Paths is what Brenda Laurel calls a "friendship adventure," allowing young girls to rehearse their coping skills and try alternative social strategies. The Play Town: Another Space for Girls? Harriet was trying to explain to Sport how to

Purple Moon received criticism for focusing on designing games based on gender. The research was accused of reinforcing the differences between genders that girls were already socialized to accept, thus the focus on the stereotypically feminine values of cooperation, narrative, and socialization as opposed to the stereotypically masculine values embodied in most games as violence and competition.{{cite web|url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/girl-games-adventures-in-lip-gloss|title=Girl Games: Adventures in Lip Gloss|last=Eisenberg|first=Rebecca|date=13 February 1998|work=Gamasutra|access-date=16 May 2017}}

In 1989, Laurel and Scott Fisher founded Telepresence Research, a company focusing in first-person media, virtual reality, and remote presence research and development.[https://books.google.com/books?id=k6auljJ9hJUC&dq=scott+fisher+brenda+laurel&pg=PA337 Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-expanding Technology]VR's quintessential innovators

We take a deep dive into the history of five virtual reality pioneers. [https://www.polygon.com/features/2016/10/26/13411364/heilig-fisher-marks-de-la-pena-laurel-vr-bio][https://monoskop.org/Brenda_Laurel Monoskop]

In Laurel's work regarding interface design, she is well known for her support of the theory of interactivity, the "degree to which users of a medium can influence the form or content of the mediated environment."{{cite journal |last=Steuer |first=Jonathan |title=Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence |journal=Journal of Communication |year=2006 |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=73–93 |doi=10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00812.x|citeseerx=10.1.1.33.5821 }} Virtual reality, according to Laurel, is less characterized by its imaginary or unreal elements than by its multisensory representation of objects, be they real or imaginary.{{cite journal |last1=Sand |first1=Michael |title=Virtual Reality Check: An E-Mail Interview with Brenda Laurel |journal=Aperture |date=Summer 1994 |issue=136 |pages=70–72 |issn=0003-6420}} While discussions around virtual reality tended to center on visual representations, audio and kinesthesia are two potent sources of sensory input that virtual reality devices attempt to tap into. Laurel's 1994 Placeholder installation at Banff Center for the Arts—a collaboration with Rachel Strickland—explored these multisensory possibilities.{{cite web |last1=Laurel |first1=Brenda |title=Placeholder Virtual Reality Project |url=http://tauzero.com/Brenda_Laurel/Placeholder/Placeholder.html |website=TauZero |access-date=8 March 2015}} Placeholder was the first VR project to separate gaze from direction of movement, allow for two hands to participate, support two player games, and use imagery from natural landscape. The installation allowed multiple people to construct a narrative by attaching movement trackers to its subjects' bodies while letting them navigate a virtual environment by doing common physical acts with special results, such as flapping one's arms to fly.

Following the closure of Purple Moon, Laurel worked as chair and professor at the ArtCenter College of Design, and later the California College of the Arts, additionally becoming an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She currently{{vague|date=November 2021}} teaches Design Research, Critique, Methods for Innovation and Creativity, and Interaction in the Polis.

In 2015 Laurel won the Trailblazer award at the IndieCade festival.{{Cite news|url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-10-23-her-story-wins-indiecade-2015-grand-jury-award|title=Her Story wins Indiecade 2015 Grand Jury award|last=Weber|first=Rachel|date=23 October 2015|work=gamesindustry.biz|access-date=16 September 2019}}

• Computers as Theatre (2nd Edition), Addison-Wesley Professional, (2013) {{ISBN|0321918622}}
• Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, MIT Press, (2004) {{ISBN|0-262-12263-4}}
• Utopian Entrepreneur, MIT Press (2001) {{ISBN|0-262-62153-3}}
• Computers as Theatre, Addison-Wesley (1991) {{ISBN|0-201-55060-1}}
• The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, Addison-Wesley (1990) {{ISBN|0-201-51797-3}}

"Tech Work by Heart" in Women, Technology, Art, edited by Judy Malloy, is an early essay explaining the origins of Purple Moon.{{Cite book |title=Women, art, and technology |date=2003 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-13424-8 |pages=303–321 |editor-last=Malloy |editor-first=Judy |series=Leonardo |location=Cambridge, Mass.}}

• Goldilocks, on CyberVision. (1978)
• Hangman, on CyberVision. (1978)
• Labyrinth: The Computer Game (1986)
• Rockett's New School, Purple Moon Media. (1997)
• Secret Paths in the Forest, Purple Moon Media. (1997) {{ISBN|9781890278168}}
• Rockett's Tricky Decision, Purple Moon Media. (1998)
• Rockett's Secret Invitation, Purple Moon Media. (1998) {{ISBN|9781890278281}}
• Rockett's First Dance, Purple Moon Media. (1998)
• Rockett's Adventure Maker, Purple Moon Media. (1998)
• Secret Paths to the Sea, Purple Moon Media. (1998)
• Starfire Soccer Challenge, Purple Moon Media. (1998)

• Colonizing Cyberspace (1991)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1224921/ Horizon: Colonizing Cyberspace]
• Cyberpunk (1990) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398910/ Cyberpunk]
• {{TED speaker}}
• [http://www.ted.com/talks/brenda_laurel_on_making_games_for_girls "Games for girls" (TED1998)]

She works as a consultant and speaker, and is a part-time abalone diver.

{{Portal|Biography|Video games}}

• List of programmers
• List of women in the video game industry
• Women and video games
• Women in computing

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.designingforinteraction.com/laurel.html Designing for Interaction Interview]
• {{Cite web |title=Brenda Laurel |url=https://www.arts.gov/stories/magazine/2018/1/women-arts-galvanizing-encouraging-inspiring/brenda-laurel |access-date=2025-03-02 |website=www.arts.gov |language=en}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurel, Brenda}}

Category:Interface designers

Category:Virtual reality pioneers

Category:Ohio State University alumni

Category:DePauw University alumni

Category:American video game designers

Category:Women video game developers

Category:American women game designers

Category:American digital artists

Category:Living people

Category:California College of the Arts faculty

Category:Women digital artists

Category:1950 births

Category:21st-century American women artists

Category:21st-century American women academics

Category:21st-century American academics