Panel Statement

Panel: Pedagogy of the Oppressed 

Among the brain based differences between males and females that we know about, differences in aspects (of) spatial cognition are most significant. Differences among cultures in everything from mathematics to cosmology also tend to hinge on differing understandings of space. Accommodating differences among people in the design of anything would seem to require a great deal of flexibility in spatial understandings and metaphors.

• Brenda Laurel has worked in the personal computer industry since 1976 as a programmer, software designer, producer, and researcher. She holds an M.F.A. and Ph.D. in theatre from Ohio State University, USA. After two years as manager of software marketing for the Atari Home Computer, she moved to Atari Research to develop software architectures for dramatic virtual worlds. This work was published in her doctoral disseration in 1986. From 1987 until 1992 she worked as a design and research consultant in interactive media.She is currently a member of the research staff at Interval Research Corporation. In the summer of 1993 she was artist in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, creating the experimental virtual environment Placeholder. Laurel has published extensively in the areas of humancomputer interaction, computer-based agents, and virtual reality. She is editor of the book, The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design (Addison-Wesley, 1990) and author of Computers as Theatre (AddisonWesley, 1991).