Marnix van Gisbergen

Marnix van Gisbergen (1974) is a professor ‘Digital Media Concepts’ at Breda University of Applied Sciences and professor ‘Media Enriched Sport Experiences’ (powered by ZIGGO and city of Hilversum). Between 2013-2017 Marnix was also the RBI manager of the Academy for Digital Entertainment. Presently his main research interest is aimed to help brands to realize a virtual reality strategy based on media context connectivity. With an international team of media researchers, game developers and students, Marnix is involved in several innovative media related National and European funded projects on topics such as virtual reality, human body sensors, transmedia and new media business models. In his current work at the Academy for Digital Entertainment and previous work as a lecturer/researcher at the Radboud University (1998-2006), he was involved in over 100 BA and Ma level student graduation projects. As a research director (2005-2012) of research agency DVJ Insights and youth company YoungVotes he was responsible for the initiation and management of media related research projects for over 50 (national and global) brands (e.g., RTL, MTV Networks, Sony BMG). Marnix published in numerous national and international magazines, presented at international media and communication conferences and provided workshops for companies to among others transfer research insights into new concepts. Marnix was nominated for the AMMA award for best media related research (2014), the Pfizer Press price (2010) and MOA Dutch Market Researcher of the year award (2009). In 2006 Marnix got his PhD (NWO grant) in Communication Sciences at the Radboud University.

Professorship Digital Media Concepts (DMC)

The central goal within the professorship Digital Media Concepts (DMC) aligns with ADE’s overall ambition: ‘To create an international educational and research environment where academics, industry professionals and students collaboratively develop innovative and relevant knowledge, expertise, and products in Digital Entertainment’. The key domain is the (national and international) top sector Creative Industries. The main learning goal is to be able to create and incorporate new digital media technologies from a management and creative perspective. The professorship has a focus on Virtual Reality (vr/ar/mr) in 2016-2020. We believe in the importance of ‘lean research’, testing while creating, using a media context viewpoint by means of the central program line ‘Contextual Connected Media’. Within this program we use media context as the guiding principle to measure, explore and understand the functionality and role of virtual reality. In doing so it provides a framework against which organizations can create virtual reality concepts and media strategies, designed to engage and reach audiences who do -or do not- move across different media platforms. Central goals: 1. To create and examine the effects of high quality worlds and characters in VR, 2. To better understand the role of virtual reality in the media context, 3. Examine the functionality and effects of VR within a media context, 4. Explore how we can use this context to connect virtual reality with other media (transmedia strategy).