EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Leah Talatinian
Senior Officer for Marketing and Communications
The MIT arts community mourns the passing of Brit d’Arbeloff, Corporation Life Member Emerita and one of the most dedicated champions for the arts at MIT, who died on May 8, 2026, at the age of 91. For nearly three … Continued
How MIT alumni created an experimental installation at the MIT Museum to turn our innermost worlds into collective experiences Hotel #2: Communal Dreams is composed of three handcrafted aluminum cylinders, each one equipped with a narrow black mattress, that converge … Continued
Drawing from geography and history, Nathan Friedman’s vision of architecture extends beyond buildings When asked what architects do, most people tend to think that they design buildings. And of course, that is part of their purview. But many architects … Continued
Max Addae’s innovative instrument creates new connections between sound and touch. What if the voice could be manipulated by hand, like so many other musical instruments? That was the question that drove Max Addae, MAS ‘23, to create VocalCords, an … Continued
An MIT panel charts how art and design will be impacted by Artificial Intelligence Few technologies have shown as much potential to shape our future as artificial intelligence. Specialists in fields ranging from medicine to microfinance to the military are … Continued
Nell Breyer’s installation “Where Lines Converge,” on view in Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, asks what it means for bodies to convene and perceive themselves as a collective. The artist Nell Breyer ‘02 has long been fascinated by the relationship between … Continued
The digital artworks of Tamiko Thiel ’83 expand perception of our immediate environment Imagine walking in an urban setting, conjuring a spontaneous rewilding of the world around you; metro stations are dominated by native species, exotic invasives self-seed in … Continued
An unconventional format for her documentary about an unconventional pop star The Turkish songwriter, poet and performer Zeki Müren (1931-1996) was an idiosyncratic star, to say the least. A flamboyant fashion plate partial to platform boots, tight lamé outfits, … Continued
The PhD alum, who works as a research scientist at Visa Research, performed his Emerson/Harris solo recital after a two-year delay. Srinivasan Raghuraman SM ’17, PhD ’20 was in the lab after hours during his first year at MIT when … Continued
Artist and architect Emma Yimeng Zhu 朱艺蒙 is challenging us to reimagine our world. Emma Yimeng Zhu 朱艺蒙 (SMACT ’21) is fascinated by lines. By the boundaries they form, by the blurring of them, and by how we might … Continued
Composer Nina C. Young is equally at ease drawing from Renaissance motets and 21st-century technology to devise her sonic architectures. When she was a senior at MIT, Nina C. Young ’07 took Michael (1949) and Sonja Koerner Music Composition Professor … Continued
Joshua Sariñana hopes that combining science, poetry, and photography can create new avenues for understanding and advocating for social justice. Joshua Sariñana (PhD ‘11) has always asked big questions. “I wanted to understand consciousness,” Sariñana says of studying neuroscience … Continued
In a new video art piece, MIT alum Rae Yuping Hsu counters traditional narratives of colonization In late May, 20,000 feet above Pease, New Hampshire, a woman dressed as a microbe in a spacesuit inoculated with slime mold bounced around … Continued
In a new online project, MIT alum Nancy Valladares finds phantoms in Honduras’s horticultural past In 1932, the British botanist Dorothy Popenoe died after eating a piece of unripe ackee fruit. The fruit, which originated in West Africa, was grown … Continued
For Dr. Daniel Chonde, art, science, and health don’t just enrich each other — they are inextricably intertwined One of the most consequential lessons Dr. Daniel Chonde (SB ’07, PhD ‘15), a third-year resident in radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, … Continued
When MArch’20 graduates Dalma Földesi and Jung In Seo first started taking ceramics classes at MIT’s Student Art Association (SAA), they found a fascinatingly protean substance. Clay could be liquid or solid, heavy and dense or feather-light. Before it hardens, … Continued
The video opens under an expanse of murky green water, as two swimmers clasp each other and slowly pinwheel in place to the somber notes of a piano sonata. A voiceover says, “The world record for human breath-hold underwater is … Continued
“Be stubborn and ultimately believe in your writing,” advises first-time novelist Mia Heavener ’00, “especially if you are having crappy writing days.” On April 13, Heavener visited Wyn Kelley’s literature course “Reading Fiction: Voyages” to share her story of writing … Continued
Devi Lockwood was wandering down the Infinite Corridor in the Fall of 2018 when she noticed a sheaf of brochures perched on the door of a small office to her left. The brochures had information about grants awarded by the … Continued
By Marie-Pier Boucher, Stefan Helmreich, Leila W. Kinney, Skylar Tibbits, Rebecca Uchill, and Evan Ziporyn The following excerpt is from the publication Being Material (2019 MIT Press). At the intersection of art, science, and technology, the book Being Material … Continued
The international artist attributes his diverse career to MIT’s open culture. Jorge Otero-Pailos ’02 attributes his unique artistic vision to his experience at MIT, where he earned a PhD in History and Theory of Architecture at the MIT School of … Continued
The mechanical engineering graduate followed his muse as musician and composer. The roads to MIT are many and circuitous. For Ray Zepeda ‘88, the route was straight east. A lifelong Californian, Zepeda’s cross-country trip was motivated by dual interests. “Studying … Continued
L. Nichols will present a reading of his new work “Flocks,” an autobiographical graphic novel, on Tuesday, November 27, 2018 from 5:00-6:15pm in the MIT Wiesner Student Art Gallery. The reading will include an introduction by Stephen Tapscott, Professor, Literature and … Continued
Bose, BuzzFeed, E*Trade, Gillette, Huffington Post, Texas Instruments, Zipcar—those are just a few familiar companies founded by MIT alumni. With MIT’s “lab to market” ethos, it may come as no surprise that thousands of alumni have turned their research findings … Continued
Language is the defining trait of being human, yet a deep knowledge of how it works did not develop until the 20th century. Pioneering linguists like Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle, MIT Institute Professors emeriti, were instrumental in the development … Continued
