A new kind of media theory

Unlike most people, MIT's Fox Harrell knew what he wanted to do in life from a young age. According to Harrell, an associate professor of digital media who studies self-expression in online media and creates tools to help developers add depth to their work, the impetus for his career came from an epiphany he had one day while doing computer programming as a kid in San Diego. "You heard a lot about TV turning people into couch potatoes, so I thought, 'Whatever comes next, I would like to be a voice for the social and ethical dimension of that form,'" Harrell says. "I couldn't have predicted the exact form it would take, but that [moment] sparked the direction I would go in." Or directions, since Harrell occupies an unusual spot in academic research, with an appointment in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as well as in its program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing.