Professor Fox Harrell’s research group — the Imagination, Computation, and Expression (ICE) Lab — builds computational systems for expressing imaginative stories and concepts — “phantasmal media” systems.

In particular, his research uses artificial intelligence/cognitive science-based techniques to understanding the human imagination to invent and better understand new forms of computational narrative, identity, games, and related types of expressive digital media. In this talk, he will discuss his recent works and collaborations including the “Living Liberia Fabric,” an AI-based interactive video documentary produced in affiliation with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia to memorialize 14 years of civil war, “Generative Visual Renku,” an AI-based form of generative animation, and several other projects.

Harrell received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his project “Computing for Advanced Identity Representation.” He is currently completing a book, Phantasmal Media: An Approach to Imagination, Computation, and Expression, for the MIT Press. Harrell is Associate Professor of Digital Media at MIT in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, Comparative Media Studies, and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).

Fox Harrell, "The Imagination, Computation, and Expression Lab"

VENUS PELLAGATTI XTRAVAGANZA
ROBERT BROOKS
SAM NORDQUIST
AARON BUSHNELL
ELIJAH MCCLAIN
ANTEO ZAMBONI 
SUMMER TAYLOR
AHMED EREKAT
DOMINIQUE REM'MIE FELLS
SARAH GROSSMAN
JAMES SCURLOCK
DAVID MCATEE
EYAD AL-HALAQ
HECTOR GARCIA MENDOZA
GEORGE FLOYD
BREONNA TAYLOR
VICENTE RAMON GUERRERO
MARCI WISE
JOSEPH ROSENBAUM
ANTHONY HUBER
RIAH MILTON
TONY MCDADE 
EUGUI ROY
AHMAUD ARBERY
ASHLYNN LISBY
OLUWATOYIN SALAU 
VICTORIA SIMS
JOHANNA METZGER
ZEZICO GUAJAJARA
ISABEL CABANILLAS
DAVID GLEN WARD
TONY MCDADE
TIFFANY M. MOFIELD
KENNY RICHIE MARTY "MYLEZ" MITCHELL
NÉHÉMIE JOSEPH
NICOLA SACCO
BARTOLOMEO VANZETTI
ANNA LOPIZZO
ATATIANA KOQUICE JEFFERSON
CARY BALL JR.
ROXANA HERNANDEZ
JAKELIN CAAL MAQUIN
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DREASJON "SEAN" REED
MCHALE ROSE
JANA LANGE
WILLIE MCCOY
MARIEE JUAREZ
OSMAR EPIFANIO GONZALEZ-GADBA
JEANCARLO JIMENEZ-JOSEPH
HUY CHI TRAN
KALIEF BROWDER
MI'CHANCE DUNLAP-GITTENS
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KAMYAR SAMIMI
JOSHUA BROWN
GEMMEL MOORE
TIMOTHY DEAN
SAHAR KHODAYARI
DE'VON BAILEY
TONY TIMPA
MARIA DEL PILAR HURTADO
EMILSEN MANYOMA
MOISÉS MOSQUERA MORENO
TEMISTOCLES MACHADO 
ELEAZAR TEQUÍA VITUCAY
HECTOR WILLIAM MINA
ELIJAH AL-AMIN
NINA POP
JENNIFER LAUDE
LAYLEEN POLANCO
PAMELA TURNER
CHYNAL LINDSEY
JOYCE FIENBERG
RICHARD GOTTFRIED
ROSE MALLINGER 
JERRY RABINOWITZ 
CECIL ROSENTHAL 
DAVID ROSENTHAL 
BERNICE SIMON 
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DANIEL STEIN 
MOHAMMED ABU KHUDAIR
MOHAMMAD RAMIZ BAKR
AHED ATEF BAKR
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MELVIN WAX 
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ARMANDO FRANK
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LINUS PHILLIP
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DANA MARTIN
ASHANTI CARMON
CLAIRE LEGATO
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MUHLAYSIA BOOKER
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ADAMA TRAORE
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STEPHON CLARK
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TOVEET RADCLIFFE
HEATHER HEYER
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RICKY JOHN BEST
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FREDDIE GRAY 
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JORDAN EDWARDS
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LIGE DANIELS
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SAM DUBOSE
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Featuring a wide assortment of interviews and event archives, the MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing podcast features the best of our field's critical analysis, collaborative research, and design -- all across a variety of media arts, forms, and practices.

You can learn more about us, including info about our faculty and academic programs and how to join us in person for events, at cmsw.mit.edu.

UPCOMING

PAST
⊹⊹08.11.25⊹⊹ Blue Rider Radio
⊹⊹08.09.25⊹⊹ Subbah Forest Rave
⊹⊹08.08.25⊹⊹ Bordello Aperitivo
⊹⊹03.25⊹⊹ Good Bar
⊹⊹11.24⊹⊹ Good Bar
⊹⊹06.07.24⊹⊹ Bordello Aperitivo
⊹⊹19.06.24⊹⊹ Radio Sofa
⊹⊹15.06.24⊹⊹ forest rave
⊹⊹07.06.24⊹⊹ Folder FM - Borisov
⊹⊹ 23.05.24⊹⊹ Kino for Your Ears - Ventilator Cinema
⊹⊹ 04.05.24⊹⊹ OCCII (Bandgurl)
⊹⊹ 25.04.24⊹⊹ Speaking Rhythms - TitsOut4Snacks x OT301
⊹⊹ 06.04.24⊹⊹ Cyborgian Echo Expo @ NDSM Treehouse
⊹⊹ 28.03.24 ⊹⊹ UvA 𝔹𝕠𝕖𝕜𝕗𝕖𝕤𝕥
⊹⊹ 26.03.24⊹⊹ StrandedFM
⊹⊹ 21.03.24 ⊹⊹ ɖཞɱ ųŋıɬ x 𝕲𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖔
⊹⊹ 09.03.24⊹⊹ TNP Radio
⊹⊹ 08.03.24⊹⊹ Big Toilet Radio - Women’s Day Special
⊹⊹ 02.03.24⊹⊹𝗥𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗻 x 𝐹𝒶𝓁𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒫𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝐹𝒾𝓁𝓂 𝒫𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 (cafe x expo room)
⊹⊹ 24.02.24 ⊹⊹ Pretty//Ugly Presents: Youniss, BUG, Kiss my Knoblauch, & Factory Girl @ ℜ𝔬𝔬𝔡𝔨𝔞𝔭𝔧𝔢
⊹⊹ 02.02.24 ⊹⊹𝒯𝒩𝒫 𝑅𝒶𝒹𝒾𝑜
⊹⊹ 24.11.23 ⊹⊹ 𝒸𝑜𝓇𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓇𝑒 {⋆⌘⋆} 𝙱𝚒𝚐 𝚃𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚁𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚘 - 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞
⊹⊹ 20.10.23 ⊹⊹ Kruispunt & Pacific Ondergronds Presenteren Amsterdam Punk Event @ Garage Noord
⊹⊹ 17.08.23 ⊹⊹ Kruispunt Presents - Slipgevaar @ Garage Noord
⊹⊹ 24.06.23 ⊹⊹ Pretty//Ugly Presents @ OCCII with Swan Meat, Tonto and Red Shades
⊹⊹ 11.06.23 ⊹⊹ AUC Dormsessions @ De VerbroederIJ
⊹⊹ 14.04.23 ⊹⊹ Unlikely Animal Friends - TNP Radio
⊹⊹ 03.02.23 ⊹⊹ Echobox Presents
⊹⊹ 25.11.12 ⊹⊹ TNP Radio
⊹⊹ 19.11.22 ⊹⊹ Vondelbunker Halloween
⊹⊹ 25.03.22 ⊹⊹ La Fam x The Platform community day afterparty @ Studio K
⊹⊹ 23.03.22 ⊹⊹ Wednesdays on Web Radio
⊹⊹ 16.03.22 ⊹⊹ Het Bedrijf Radio
⊹⊹ 10.02.21 ⊹⊹ Wednesdays on Web Radio
⊹⊹ 21.02.19 ⊹⊹ Scopophilia Liberation Party

SHORT BIO:

Factory Girl is interested in music as the unspoken language, using her sets to explore mercurial narratives which take inspiration and direct samples from literature and other media to create points of emotional tension and resolution. She weaves together everything from harsh noise to folk, jungle, juke, trip-hop, dub, noise and an array of ambient sounds.

LONG BIO:

the “factory girl” was a step in the assembly line of production, industrial or creative. 19th century textile weavers or Edie Sedgwick. worker or muse, never the auteur.

in the 19th-century, immigrants poured into Ellis Island and constituted the new working class. women began working outside the home, and it was these “factory girls” who bastioned the hidden foundations of New York’s economy, fashion and culture. this new generation of more liberated women took smoke breaks and became the first “dating class” who could go out and spend their own cash at cafes and diners and dance to live music late into the night. they were still severely oppressed and limited by class, grueling and dangerous work, rarely able to express themselves creatively, and subject to die at any moment in a factory fire.

skip to Edie Sedgwick, one of the first influencers, relatively untalented and famous for doing nothing. nicknamed “Factory Girl” by Andy Warhol, there was a palpable contrast between her (she had a trust fund and was an actress for fun) and the working class. still, she suffered in her own way as her mental illness was exacerbated by violations from every side. Warhol, Bob Dylan, and other men cast her as their muse, then left her to rot when she no longer served their purposes.

although Edie was far removed from the factory girls before her, the parallels were there. Warhol called his studio a factory and he was busy churning out commodities with the help of unsung female models, helpers, etc. I think in both cases the term “factory girl” was a little affectionate but mostly derogatory because it was totalizing: whether you were a 19th century weaver in a textile factory or Edie, a factory girl is all you were, a step in the assembly line and never the auteur.

I am inspired by the indomitable spirits of the factory girls before me, cogs in the machine of industrialization who must’ve brought a feminine sensitivity, attentiveness and care to otherwise mindless work. even if they didn’t have time or energy to make their own art or music, or be recognized as artists, I’m sure they found ways to express themselves how they could.