91��Ƭ��

Sydney is currently completing her dissertation in the areas of artificial intelligence, mind, and aesthetics under the supervision of Jesse Prinz and Noel Carroll at CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests consider the correlations between environment, embodied emotion, perception, and ethical engagement in both human and machine minds. She is currently a pre-doctoral research fellow with the Fay Horton Sawyer Center for Ethics in the Professions at the 91��Ƭ�� Institute of Technology (IIT). She is excited about this awarded position because it will allow her to further develop her interest in philosophy of technology within a specialized institute. This semester at IIT, she is teaching a course that she designed, titled "Ethics of Technology: Mind and Media." The content explores three topics in the philosophy of technology: mind and machines, AI impact on human flourishing, and the use of algorithms in online media. While teaching this course, she was inspired by the interesting conversations she had with her students in class over the topic of chatbot-encouraged suicide and chatbot romantic partners. This discussion led her to write a paper on the topic currently under review with the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, titled “Chatbots and the Paradox of Fiction.” The chatbot paradox highlights the inconsistency of people feeling companionship towards AI chatbots while simultaneously knowing that these machines lack emotionally complex minds. In her fellowship, she is also engaged in a research team consisting of herself and a philosophy faculty member on the topic of surveillance technology and predictive coding in marginalized neighborhoods.

This current research project with IIT correlates with the research she has been conducting during her dissertation work. The dissertation introduces the term “Curated Spaces”, which builds on the concept of situated cognition. In 2022, she received a research grant to study the emotional impact of sunlight in Norway, which contributed to a published paper on sunlight, sublimity, and the technology of moving images titled “A Reflection of the Sun” in the journal Philosophy and Film. Along with this work, in the summer of 2024, she presented a paper in Budapest at the Cognitive Science of Moving Images conference on the emotional effects of certain electrical light techniques in moving images. That paper has been accepted for publication in that same journal for a 2025 volume.  She also has a paper forthcoming in the journal Acta Philosophica Fennica, special volume on environmental aesthetics. The paper titled “Curated Cognition in Nature” engages with contemporary work in cognitive science on gallery spaces to argue for a parallel between the curation of art spaces to that of designed natural environments such as Yellowstone National Park or Central Park.

Publications

Harvey, S (2025). AI Chatbots and the Paradox of Fiction. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, AI and Philosophy of Arts. (In Review)

Harvey, S (2025). A Curated Cognition of Nature. Acta Philosophica Fennica, Contemporary Issues in Environmental Aesthetics. (forthcoming)

Harvey, S. (2025). Electric Light (O). Film and Philosophy 29. Print(forthcoming)

Harvey, S. (2024). A Reflection of the Sun ( ). Film and Philosophy 28:1-18. Print

Harvey, S. (2022). Visiting MoMA While Black. Hyperallergic. Online Magazine.