biography

“Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.“ 

Ludwig Wittgenstein, in Culture and Value (entry for 1934)

barry.brown@me.com (personal), barry@dsv.su.se (work)

Barry Brown is a professor of Human Computer Interaction at Stockholm University, where he helps runs STIR, the Stockholm technology and interaction research group.  Barry’s work combines computer science and social sciences, aiming to study and design technology for work and leisure settings.  His most recent research used video methods to study mobile technology in detail, looking at mobile phones use, smartwatch use, and drivers interactions with self driving cars. He currently has two new projects looking at “implicit interaction”, and critical approaches to security and the Internet of Things.  MIT Press recently published his book “Enjoying Machines” (2015), and Sage his edited book “The SAGE handbook of digital technology research” (2013).   

He is co-principle investigator of the SSF funded “Implicit Interaction” project, which brings together 20 academics across SICS, KTH and Stockholm University, along with running research projects with Göteborg University, Edinburgh University, Microsoft and Nissan. Until earlier this year he was a directors of the Mobile Life Research Centre. He has published over 100 academic articles, three books, his most recent of which was published with MIT Press titled “Enjoying Machines”.

His recent interest has been in using video methods to understand how mobile devices, such as iPhones, have changed how we work and live. Recent publications include studies of activities as diverse as games, tourism, museum visiting, the use of maps, television watching and sport spectating. He was previously an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, a research fellow on the Equator project at the University of Glasgow and a research scientist at Hewlett-Packard’s research labs in Bristol.

His qualifications include a degree in computer science from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in sociology from the University of Surrey.

Postal address:

Professor Barry Brown
Stockholms universitet
Institutionen för data- och systemvetenskap, DSV,
Stockholms universitet
Postbox 7003
164 07 Kista

barry@dsv.su.se
Phone: +46 702845031

Org.nr: 20 21 00 30 62