Brenda Laurel, designer of the Rockett computer game series with Purple Moon will speak twice at Indiana University in Bloomington this Sunday and Monday. On Sunday, January 13th from 4:30-6 p.m. Brenda will talk in the auditorium in the education building at 201 North Rose Ave. in Bloomington. Her talk will be on Children and Story Space. On Monday, January 14th from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union she will speak on the topic of Gender and Technology Research. Brenda Laurel is a designer, researcher and writer. Her work focuses on interactive narrative, human-computer interaction, and cultural aspects of technology. Her career in human-computer interaction spans over twenty years. She holds an M.F.A. and Ph.D. in theatre from the Ohio State University. Brenda was one of the founding Members of the research staff at Interval Corporation in Palo Alto, California, where she coordinated research activities exploring gender and technology, and where she co-produced and directed the Placeholder Virtual project. She was also one of the founders and VP/Design of a spin-off company from Interval - Purple Moon - formed to market products based on this research. Mattel acquired Purple Moon in 1999. In 1990 she co-founded Telepresence Research, Inc. to develop virtual reality and remote presence technology and applications. She has worked as a software designer, producer, and researcher for companies including Atari, Activision, and Apple. Brenda Laurel is the author of the Utopian Entrepreneur [MIT Press 2001] and Computers as Theatre [Addison-Wesley 1991; 2nd edition 1993], Brenda is also the editor of the Art of Human-Computer Interface Design [Addison-Wesley 1990] and a collection of essays entitled Severed Heads. Additional information can be found at http://www.tauzero.com/Brenda_Laurel/index.html Brenda's talks are part of the IDEAS project and presented by the MIME program in Telecommunications and co-sponsored by the department of Instructional Systems Technology, Betsy Gatewood in the Business School, the School of Informatics and the Digital Media Arts Program in the department of Fine Arts. Initial funding for the IDEAS speaker series came from Ken Gros Lewis. For information about Brenda's talks and her schedule at IU send mail to thom@indiana.edu