Genevieve Bell: The Value of Boredom

We might think of being bored as a time when our brain is completely inactive, it turns out one’s brain is almost as active when bored as when not bored. Being bored is actually a time when your brain gets to reset itself and where your consciousness gets to reset itself too. Part of Genevieve Bell’s job is to not only tell the real stories about people but to actually think about what our relationships are with, through and around new technology.

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ABOUT Genevieve Bell

“Dr. Genevieve Bell is an Australian-born anthropologist and researcher. As Director of User Interaction and Experience in Intel Labs, she leads a research team of social scientists, interaction designers, human factors engineers and computer scientists.

This team shapes and helps create new Intel technologies and products that are increasingly designed around people’s needs and desires. In addition to leading this increasingly important area of research at Intel, Genevieve is an accomplished industry pundit on the intersection of culture and technology.

She is a regular public speaker and panelist at technology conferences worldwide, sharing myriad insights gained from her extensive international field work and research. Her first book, ‘Divining the Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing,’ was co-written with Prof. Paul Dourish of the University of California at Irvine and released in April 2011.

In 2010, Genevieve was named one of Fast Company’s inaugural ‘100 Most Creative People in Business.’ She also is the recipient of several patents for consumer electronics innovations. Moving to the United States for her Under Graduate studies, she graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1990 with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology.

She then attended Stanford University, earning her Master’s degree (1993) and a Doctorate (1998) in Cultural Anthropology, as well as acting as a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology from 1996-1998.”

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