Larry Friedlander

English Dept., Stanford University

In the early 1980's he began working in multimedia design and applications starting with the Shakespeare Project, a pioneering investigation of the application of new technologies for education in the arts and the humanities. In 1990 Friedlander formed the Interactive Shakespeare Group with professors at MIT to develop tools for the study and presentation of Shakespeare and to establish an interactive electronic archive to be placed in the Folger Library and other institutions. Friedlander has also developed numerous other educational applications, including the TheaterGame, an animation program for staging plays, and Paris/Theatre, a program for the historical study of French Theater.

Professor Friedlander has worked in major research laboratories on a wide variety of projects. At the Apple Multimedia Lab, he developed an innovative set of designs for the Globe Theater Museum in London. At the MIT Media Lab, he collaborated on a computer-enhanced theater space and narrative piece called the Wheel of Life, which has become a model for augmented interactive spaces. At the Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratory in Cambridge, Friedlander worked on long-distance, virtual, collaborative spaces.

Professor Friedlander has been heavily involved in museum design and planning, including advising the Museum of Scotland, a new national museum due to open in Edinburgh in 1999, on its plans for technology and design, and helping the University of Art and Design in Helsinki establish a department of interactive museum design, He was an Osher Fellow at the San Francisco Exploratorium, has done work with numerous other institutions and has recently co-organized a symposium on Museums and Technology for the SF Museum of Modern Art. Friedlander has lectured and written widely in these fields.

Larry will present Models for a New Vistor-Centered Museum: Using the Web to Create Community and Continuity for the Museum Visitor. Larry will co-present Design Strategies for Integrating the Web and Interactive Media in the Museum.