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This is a Berkman Klein alum page. The information below may be out of date.

Jonathan Sun is an interdisciplinary researcher, architect, engineer, artist, comedian, and playwright. He is a PhD candidate at MIT in the Department of Urban Studies + Planning, and a 2016-2017 Berkman Klein Fellow at Harvard. His research interests involve integrating urban information systems and social media to investigate experience, perception, emotion, and behavior in the built environment. His work across multiple disciplines more broadly addresses narratives of human experience.

At the Berkman Klein Center, he plans to study how online communities use humor and language to influence the spread of ideas, and how social media is changing the way we use the city.

Jonathan is a graduate of the Yale School of Architecture (M.Arch. 2015), where he was the recipient of the 2015 William Edward Parsons Memorial Medal (for achievement in city planning), an H.I. Feldman Prize nominee, a James Gamble Rogers Fellow, and a Teaching Fellow. He is an honors graduate of the Infrastructure program in Engineering Science at the University of Toronto (B.A.Sc. 2012), where he was the recipient of the 2012 L.E. Jones Award (for outstanding contribution to engineering and the arts), the 2012 Engineers for the World award, a University of Toronto Arts Council Award, and a Gordon Cressy Leadership Award.

In addition to his academic work, Jonathan's work on Twitter is creative, where he authors the @jonnysun account. As a Twitter comedian, he has over 175,000 followers to date, and has been published in NPR, McSweeney's, Playboy, Forbes, Buzzfeed, and the Yale Herald. He was also nominated for the 2015 Shorty Award for Comedian of the Year. As a playwright, Jonathan's work has been performed at the Yale School of Drama, and in Toronto at the Hart House Theater and the Factory Theater. As an artist, his work has been exhibited at MIT, New Haven ArtSpace, Yale, and the University of Toronto. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of the Yale School of Architecture journal, Retrospecta 36 (Yale Press, 2013).

Jonathan is an advocate for interdisciplinary education and continues to work and teach across the fields of design research, architecture, engineering, art, and theater.


News

News
Mar 29, 2019

ARTificial Intelligence: The Laughing Room

An artificially intelligent sitcom

The Laughing Room is an artificially intelligent room and interactive art installation that plays a laugh track whenever the participants say something that the room’s algorithm…

News
Nov 19, 2018

Funny or creepy? MetaLab researcher creates sitcom-like experience

‘Laughing Room,’ metaLab researcher’s installation, turns a visit to the library into a sitcom-like experience — only deeper


Community

EdSurge

Do Schools Really Kill Creativity?

Jonny Sun on What Schools Get Right

Jun 26, 2019
New York Times

Jonny Sun’s Work Diary

Correct Spellign Optoinal, Creativity Mandatory

The author-illustrator behind ‘everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too’ is writing for TV and film, plus pursuing a Ph.D. at M.I.T.

Apr 22, 2019
Ted Blog

Announcing the speaker lineup for TED2019: Bigger than us

Jonny Sun joins the TED2019 "Bigger than Us" speaker lineup

Feb 28, 2019
Hollywood Reporter

Fox Family Picks Up 'Paper Lanterns' With Humorist Jonny Sun Writing

Humorist, illustrator, and BKC affiliate Jonny Sun is creating Paper Lanterns, a live-action/animation hybrid feature that just got picked up by Fox Family.

Nov 27, 2018
Boston Magazine

Jonny Sun's New Art Project in Cambridge Is a Sitcom, Starring You

The Twitter celebrity's Laughing Room features a laugh track powered by artificial intelligence

Nov 9, 2018
Boston Globe

Want to be on a sitcom? Illustrator Jonny Sun is opening an interactive art exhibit in Cambridge

An immersive project that examines the intersection of art, technology, and privacy

Nov 8, 2018

Events

Event
Nov 16, 2018 @ 12:00 AM

The Laughing Room

An interactive art installation in which participants enter an artificially intelligent room, designed like a sitcom set, that plays a laugh track whenever the participants say…

Event
Aug 7, 2017 @ 10:00 AM

MACHINE EXPERIENCE

metaLAB AI Art Exhibition, Lightbox Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

metaLAB exhibits five new artistic projects playfully and critically engaging different aspects of Artificial Intelligence at Harvard Art Museum's Lightbox Gallery from August 8…

Event
Jun 28, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Jonny Sun and Jonathan Zittrain in conversation

Author of the Book “everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too” by jomny sun (the aliebn)

Join Jonny Sun, the author of the popular Twitter account @jonnysun, for a conversation in celebration of his new book “everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too” by jomny sun (the…