Diane Gromala Diane Gromala (born 24 February 1960) is a Canada Research Chair and a Professor in the Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...

 School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Her research works at the confluence of computer science, media art and design, and has focused on the cultural, visceral, and embodied implications of digital technologies, particularly in the realm of chronic pain

Chronic pain

Chronic pain has several different meanings in medicine. Traditionally, the distinction between acute and chronic pain has relied upon an arbitrary interval of time from onset; the two most commonly used markers being 3 months and 6 months since the initiation of pain, though some theorists and...

 .

Dr. Gromala was one of the first artists to work with immersive virtual reality, beginning with Dancing with the Virtual Dervish. Co-created with Yacov Sharir in 1990 at the Banff Centre for the Arts' Art & Virtual Environments residency, this piece has been exhibited worldwide from 1993-2004. Subsequent immersive VR work was designed for stress-reduction and pain distraction during chemotherapy. Dr. Gromala's work is currently in use in over 20 hospitals and clinics.

Dr. Gromala is the founding director of the Transforming Pain Research Group, an interdisciplinary team of artists, designers, computer scientists, neuroscientists and medical doctors investigating how new technologies -- ranging from virtual reality

Virtual reality

Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...

 and robotics

Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

 to social media

Social media

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...

 -- may be used as a technological form of analgesia and pain management.
With Jay Bolter, Gromala is the co-author of Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency. This book was written from her experience as the Siggraph 2000 Art Chair. Her work is widely published in the domains of Computer Science, Interactive Art and Design.

Dr. Gromala's professional experience as a graphic designer from 1982-1990 was primarily at Apple Computer.

External links

Confronting Pain Website* http://www.confrontingpain.com/home/

School of Interactive Arts and Technology - Diane Gromala profile http://www.siat.sfu.ca/faculty/Diane-Gromala/