Menglan Chen is a doctoral student of East Asian film and media studies at Harvard University. Her research focuses on rethinking modern and contemporary imaging technologies and techniques at the intersection of aesthetic, technical, and epistemic operations. Her dissertation project explores how photography engaged light as an ecological condition of perception and knowledge in wartime East Asia. Broader interests include modern Chinese art and media culture, East Asian film history, media theory, history of knowledge, scientific visualization, design studies, as well as history of representing the formless.