Debs Wilson

Biography

Deborah (Debs) teaches on the Digital Media undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and is currently the Programme Leader for the Digital Media programmes at the University. She graduated from Southampton Solent University with a Master's in Interactive Production (Distinction) in 2003, after studying part-time, whilst managing her company Clear Thinking UK Ltd.

Clear Thinking was an Authorised Training Centre (ATC) for Autodesk, Macromedia and Maxon Cinema 4D’s suite of software products and a design agency. Design work included providing visualisations of complex models and showing the way they work in detail. Deborah’s area of training involved advanced visualisation training and consultancy to top level Architectural practices and 3D Designers i.e. HOK, Richard Rogers, RTKL and Capita Symonds.

Deborah is also Owner / Designer of The Talking Walls UK Ltd, currently in development for the heritage industry. This is a multimedia, visually rich educative application for users to explore their environment through the ages on a small screen device. The Talking Walls® is a wireless, multi-platform, multimedia application designed for users to explore and navigate where they are visiting via a mobile / handheld device, or a kiosk / DVD. The Talking Walls® will enable visitors to learn about the history of a specific place / space and how this has changed over time by exploring specific time-slices of a space, defined by the architectural changes to the property.

In 2007-8, The Talking Walls received micro project funding from SEEDA with help from Business Link to develop an application that was launched at Beaulieu Abbey on the 19th May 2010, showing the Abbey as it once was and the lives of the Cistercian monks that worked there. This is a permanent kiosk application in the Abbey’s Domus museum and an online here.

Deborah was a Visiting Lecturer for Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, lecturing in Branding & Marketing for BA Hons programmes, and seminars for MA Advertising Management programme. She was also an Associate Lecturer for Faculty of Business, Sport and Enterprise, Southampton Solent University, providing seminars for MA Marketing Management students.

For two years (1998-2000), Deborah was the HNC/HND CAD Course Coordinator/Lecturer, teaching also on the HND Multimedia course at Salisbury College before moving to set up her own training and design company (2000) Clear Thinking UK Ltd. Deborah has over eight years’ experience in teaching multimedia and CAD software mostly Autodesk, Discreet and Adobe software for her company and for other training providers. She has given various lectures and seminars at local Universities regarding The Talking Walls project, as an entrepreneur and software designer and hosted student projects, as a client, on the MA Marketing consulting projects.

Deborah is currently planning and implementing the Digital Creative Hub at the University of Winchester, initially offering Adobe ACA courses to industry, staff and students, leading on to become an Authorised Training Centre for Autodesk, Adobe, Apple and Maxon for courses in software at all levels. Also developing a design hub for live paid projects to be worked on by practicing staff and students. 

Deborah has been an external validator for MA in Media Professional Practice and MSc Software Engineering and Internet Architecture degree validations and subject reviews at NTI Birmingham, Birmingham City University, 2011

Areas of expertise

• 3D Visualisation
• Architectural visualisation
• Animation
• CAD
• Illustration
• Interactive media
• Interface design
• Information design
• User centred design
• Interpretation design

Publications

• Shifting the Boundaries of Research, ASC Conference 2011 Paper ‘The development of the KubeMatrix as a mobile app for Market Research Online Communities’, Wilson, D & Birks, D.
• Launch event for permanent exhibition of multimedia kiosk application at Beaulieu Abbey Domus museum of Beaulieu Abbey and nine of the characters that inhabited the abbey, May 2010
• Princess and the Pixel - presenting at and exploring opportunities provided by innovative digital content companies to engage, extend and refresh the cultural offer of celebrity heritage venues such as at the Palace of Versailles and Palace of Chambord, France, Rosenborg Castle and The Amalienborg museum- The Royal Danish Collections, Denmark, Palace of Schönbrunn, Austria, Historic Royal Palaces, UK
• Talk given at Winchester E-Network Oct 2009, on the development of The Talking Walls application and work with Beaulieu
• ALT Journal 2009 Conference Paper ‘The Development of a Visual Display and Navigation System for small screen devices based on User behaviour and personalisation’ Wilman, M & Wilson, D
• Digital Horizons 2012 seminar on working with cultural heritage organisations.
• Demonstration ‘Designing interactive multimedia heritage content for mobile and small screen devices’ EVA London 2008
• Conference Workshop on 3D models for Cultural Heritage applications by the RECOVER Project ‘The Talking Walls’ EVA London 2007
• Article ‘Combustion 4 Review An Introduction to Autodesk’s compositing and special effects program’ for DPJ (Design Production Journal) Excitech Ltd., November 2007 Volume 4 Issue 3 pg 63-65
• Article ‘When you’ve only the walls to talk to’ Proof of Principle, Inventique Newsletter of Wessex Round Table of Inventors April 2006 Issue 65 Pg 4
• Article ‘New Invention brings history to life’ Southampton Solent University Press 20 February 2006 14/06
• Innoventions 2004 and Innoventions 2006 Exhibition exhibited The Talking Walls application, gaining award for Highly Commended for Commercial Viability in 2004 at Innoventions 2004 Exhibition, Intech, Business Link Wessex.
• Talk given on ‘Broadband for Home Use’ for Broadband conference hosted by Test Valley Borough Council and Wired Wessex, June 2002