Jonny Sun

Activist, Architect, Artist, Blogger, Concerned citizen, Designer, Educator/Teacher, Engineer, Foodie, Idea generator, Scientist, Student, Technologist

Jonny Sun is the author behind @jonnysun and everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too (HarperPerennial, 2017), and was named one of TIME Magazine's 25 Most Influential People on the Internet of 2017. He is currently a doctoral student at MIT, an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, and a creative researcher at the Harvard metaLAB, where he studies social media, virtual place, and online identity. He previously studied as an architect (M.Arch., Yale) and engineer (B.A.Sc., University of Toronto). As a playwright, Jonny's work has been performed at the Yale School of Drama, Factory Theater in Toronto, Hart House Theater, and Theater Lab in Toronto. As an artist and illustrator, his work has exhibited at MIT, the Yale School of Architecture, New Haven ArtSpace, and the University of Toronto. He is the creator of @tinycarebot and the co-creator of the MIT Humor Series. His comedic work has appeared on NPR and in TIME Magazine, BuzzFeed, Playboy, GQ, and McSweeney’s. Recently, he was profiled in the New York Times. He is currently writing his next two books, developing an art installation about AI and comedy at Harvard, shopping a TV pilot, and working on his dissertation at MIT.

My next book which I’m working on now — I’m not sure what it’s about yet. The TV pilot I just finished writing, which is a humanistic comedy about living in a simulation. Cross-disciplinary creative work and social action involving humor, art, technology, design, emotion, and empathy. The role of comedy in social change. Cultivating practices to create more inclusive and intersectional spaces online. Self care and mental health -- particularly for people of color and people who spend a lot of time online. Asian representation in entertainment and the media. Twitter bots. Writing and creating plays, books, TV, films, and other media and forms of narrative. Art and design as a way to critique and comment on technology. Humor as a way to critique and comment on everything. Creative research. Media theory -- particularly among young people. The intersection of optimism and nihilism. A lot of things that don't seem to intersect but -- you'll have to trust me on this -- they do.

Humor and empathy are imperative in how ideas spread and how viewpoints are shaped through media and society. Through humor, creativity, technology, and culture, we can create social change and shape the internet as a more inclusive space.

AI and art, Anxiety, Architecture, Bots, Comedy, Design, Digital influence, Humor, Illustration, Instagram, Memes, Mental health, Online culture, Online humor, Online life, Playwriting, Satire, Self care, Sketch comedy, Social media, Technology, Theater, Twitter, Urban design, Writing