Adonai Rocha

Biography

Adonai Rocha was born in 1958 in Pocos de Caldas in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Still a child, he moved to Brasilia in 1967. The new capital city of Brazil – which its unique modernist architecture and uniquely artistic urban planning - was still under construction despite its official inauguration in 1960. He began his career as an architect photographer's assistant while a very young man, in 1975, attending at the same time the technical school on advertising and graphics. In 1977 he was admitted to study B.A. in Communication - Radio, TV and Cinema - at the University of Brasilia. He later moved to London where he studied photography and film at the Polytechnic of Central London and the British Film Institute.

In the 1980s, Adonai returns to Brasilia where he worked as reporter for major national magazines and newspapers. In 1985 Adonai is hired by Telebras the Brazilian telecommunication company - to handle the imagery and photographic reproduction department, at the National Training Center - CNTr, a state-of-the-art facility where all technical and distance training, including audio visual materials were developed, produced and distributed nationwide.

Still in the mid-80s Adonai partnered with the prestigious Gemological Institute of America - GIA which is the world’s foremost authority on diamonds, colored stones, and pearls and the leading source of knowledge, standards, and education in gems and jewelry. He produced stunning multimedia material, images and videos, for the GIA department of education, documenting the entire process from gem mining to cutting at the heart of the world's largest emerald mining and other precious and rare gems. In recognition for his exceptional work GIA awarded Adonai with the GIA Graduate Gemologist program full tuition. The GIA GG program is the most prestigious credential in the industry.

In 1989 Adonai creates A Rocha Ltd. a.k.a. Digital Midia specialized in multimedia production and which after the turning of the millennium included internet and web creation and later mobile apps development and localization.

In 1995 he founded AJA - an award-winning educational organization in Brasilia. He used Information and Communication Technologies - ICTs and multimedia to create many initiatives on special education, health, human rights, and social development. In 1998, for his innovative program was chosen as the best national experiment in professional and special education, honored with the Paulo Freire Prize in 1998, for the use of ICTs and multimedia in education, promoted by the Labor Ministry, the Industrial Social Service (SESI), and the Roberto Marinho Foundation. He created a dynamic job bank for disabled persons in the Internet, for AJA, which was recognized as new social technology by the Fundacao Banco do Brasil in 2001. This project was selected internationally, as finalist among more than 2,600 worldwide projects, by the World Bank to be exhibited at the Development Marketplace 2001, Washington, DC. Adonai developed multimedia distance learning material (book, videos, teleconferences, website) on special education for SENAI teachers and instructors capacity building. SENAI is one of the five largest complexes of professional education in the world and the largest in Latin America.

In 2002 Adonai is hired by the United Nations system and moved to the world’s HIV and Aids epicenter: Sub-Saharan Africa to use his ICTs and multimedia expertise on educational programs to help prevent HIV infection among youth and to mitigate the impact of the epidemic. As United Nations Development Program staff he worked in Botswana as TV director of the Teacher Capacity Building program. The developed TV program called Talk Back was a success and reached out students and teachers on all schools even the ones located in the most remote areas, equipped with satellite dishes and solar panels. In order to promote viewers participation during the live show, Adonai created a multimedia system to receive and display text messages sent from viewer’s cell phones. This way the interaction was a success and made the program much more lively and open to Q&A about sensitive issues on sex and HIV and Aids. Using ICTs and multimedia, the program reached its goal: "Talk Back and Break the Silence". For his TV-mobile-web ICTs work, he received and shared with the program team the The 2004 Innovative Use of New Media Award, at Rhodes University, South Africa. The prestigious Highway Africa New Media Awards have become one of the major highlights of recognition, reward and celebration of creativity in using new technologies in media in Africa. For his outstanding work, Adonai was invited to work as ICTs director for ACHAP – a joint program by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Merck Foundation during the following year.

Back to Brazil again in 2006, Adonai created different innovative multimedia and web products on health and social development such as the dengue fever prevention website which receives millions of visitors during the peak of the dengue epidemic period. The dengue website brings information on symptoms, prevention, virus types and transmission, treatment and real-time update dengue news and reports. With the use of analytics tools, data collection and management, Adonai can now cross check data of access and indicate in real-time the most dengue affected areas or cities.

Since 2007 he creates and manages online advertising campaigns, localization, digital strategy, content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, to promote business and educational partnerships. Through his company he offers digital content internationalization and localization for foreign companies or institutions interested in operating in the Brazilian market including: promotional and technical materials translation into Portuguese, creation of a Brazilian version website, local branding and Google AdWords campaigns creation and management. Adonai is a Google AdWords Grants specialist ‐ which supports organizations sharing Google's philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.

He is an expert on robotic photography and panoramic imagery. In 2007 he started using GigaPans[Note 2] photography to help to raise awareness about UNESCO World Heritage, the protection and conservation of World Heritage Properties. GigaPan[Note 3] employs the GigaPan robotic platform for capturing very high-resolution panoramic images. This robotic camera mount was first used by NASA in Mars exploration. In 2010 had his work published on GigaPan Magazine Vol. 2

Adonai is a Google Street View Trusted Photographer and produces 360° virtual tours which are hosted on the world’s leading search engine. Utilizing the same technology as Street View, the platform allows businesses to show their ambiance, decor and style to online viewers.

He is an iOS Apple Developer and has developed many educational and commercial apps for iPhone and iPad, such as Sign Language (Deaf) Dictionary and Dengue Prevention App available at Apple App Store. Adonai is an expert eBook designer and publisher and has titles available internationally in Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble.

Adonai graduated from Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina - Unisul University with a B.A. in Digital Multimedia, [digital media], in 2008. He has the following training courses and professional development certificates: Distance Education Medium and Technologies, Unisul University, 2007. Digital Marketing, University of Leicester, 2014. Forensic Multimedia: Digital Photography and Digital Enhancements, RTI e National Institute of Justice, 2014. Technical Advances in the Visual Documentation, RTI e National Institute of Justice. Forensic Science and Technology, Digital Photography and Digital Enhancements, Technical Advances in the Visual Documentation, RTI and the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2014. Forensic Science and Criminal Justice, Certificate, University of Leicester, 2014. Forensic Questioned Documents, Certificate, West Virginia University, 2014.

Adonai is a Forensic Multimedia Analyst and works within the justice system providing key evidence to criminal investigations. Unlike other forms of forensic evidence, photos, audio and video recordings can provide a real-time, eyewitness account of a crime so investigators can watch or hear what transpired.

As visual artist and photographer Adonai has exhibited his work in few but prestigious galleries and museums such as: Adonai’s individual exhibition was held by the Embassy of Brazil in Berne, entitled Zum 50, Jahrestag der Grundung von Brasilia, 2010, Kornhausforum, Berne, Switzerland; Adonai panoramas were exhibited during Utopia and the Reality of Urbanism in the 20th Century, organise par le Comite de l’Association Maison blanche et la Section d’histoire de l’art de l’Universite de Lausanne, du 29 au 31 octobre 2010, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland; The Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro – MAM Rio - exhibited Adonai's photographs about Modernist architecture in the "Horizonte Construido – Fotografia e Arquitetura nas colecoes do MAM" exhibit, from December 2010 to January 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Abstrata Brasilia Concreta, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, 2003, Brasilia, Brazil; XVI International Biennial of Sao Paulo, from Oct to Dec, 1981. The Sao Paulo Art Biennial is among the most prestigious and one of the most visited art exhibition in the world, 1981, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Adonai Rocha, The British Council and Cultura Inglesa, 1980, Brasilia, Brazil.

Professional Recognition Awards:

• Grand-prize winner of the Everyday Preservationist Contest of the World Monument Fund, in the Sensitive Urban Development category (World Monument Fund), New York, NY.(International, 2013) • Innovative Use of New Media Awards - Highway Africa 2004, corporate category, for the Talk Back interactive TV Program. Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, (African Continent, 2004) • Paulo Freire Award 1998, Information Technology as a Method of Learning category, given by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor, the Roberto Marinho Foundation, and the Social Service of Brazilian Industry (SESI). Brasilia, DF, Brazil.(National, 1998) • Finalist at World Bank Development Marketplace, among more than 2,600 worldwide projects, World Bank. Washington, DC. (International, 2002)