Kevin Brooks is a user experience researcher and designer for Motorola and a professional oral storyteller. At Motorola, Kevin researches new user interface technologies and expresses them using various media, as connected, user-centered experiences.
His academic career went back and forth between engineering/computer science and filmmaking. Kevin liked both, but hungered for them to be more integrated long before it was fashionable. While researching how the computer and the filmmaker could tell stories together, he found the oral storytelling community in the Boston area. There is so much natural integration between skills, modalities, tools, and techniques in storytelling that it often goes unnoticed. As he developed and performed as a storyteller and then began coaching storytellers, he learned a lot about how storytelling is a pivotal part of the creation, performance, and design process.
As a writer and performing oral storyteller, Kevin tells personal tales from his urban childhood of the ’60s, his ’70s adolescence, ’80s adulthood, ’90s parenthood, and the little things that spark our lives every day. His stories for adults and family audiences resonate with humor and poignancy, as can be heard on his CD Kiss of Summer. He has been a featured performer at storytelling festivals, conferences, and other venues. Kevin’s coaching helps people find their stories whether they’re artists, technologists, or anyone who has something to say. Kevin has given numerous storytelling workshops to engineers, designers, storytellers, and even to people with normal world views.
Kevin received his PhD in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where his area of research was computational narrative and interactive cinema. He has also studied engineering, computer science, creative writing, and film production as an undergraduate, receiving a BS in Communications from Drexel University and an MA in Documentary Film from Stanford University. Kevin has several published papers on storytelling and interactive story design.
