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Gabriela Bílá Advincula’s vision for cities in motion

Two installations at the Venice Architecture Biennale and the Guggenheim Bilbao invite visitors to explore the future of urban mobility How can we research the future? It’s a question that Gabriela Bílá Advincula (MS ’21) asks herself daily in her … Continued

Woman in front of a colorful wall, turning to the side with her hair in motion.
Image: Julia Chatterjee. Courtesy the artist.

It’s All About the Art: The 2022 Wiesner Prize

1. Trashion Show, Julia Chatterjee, 2. When The Coyote Stole The Fire, Stuti Khandwala, 3. 116 x 31, Karyn Nakamura, 4. Monologue, Montserrat Garza Julia Chatterjee, Montserrat “Montse” Garza, Stuti Khandwala, and Karyn Nakamura Every year, MIT students enrich their … Continued

2022 Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts recipient Christopher Joshua Benton's The World Was My Garden. Courtesy of the artist.

Local Stories, Global Themes: The 2022 Schnitzer Prize Winners

  Visit the online exhibition of work by the 2022 recipients of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts.   Christopher Benton, Kwan Queenie Li, and Irmandy Wickasono Good art can be both timely and timeless. It can … Continued

116 x 31, an interactive projection installation by Karyn Nakamura '23

MIT Simmons Hall as an Interactive Canvas

 Student project 116 x 31 transforms an iconic building on MIT’s campus with a large-scale interactive installation It’s known on campus as “The Sponge.” But last week, undergraduate design major Karyn Nakamura transformed the iconic façade of Simmons Hall … Continued

Woman playing cello with eyes closed, seen from below
Credit: BEARWALK

An Economy of Sharing: Sudler Prize Winner Valerie Chen

Valerie Chen EECS ’22 is a gifted cellist at home in almost any musical genre. Her diverse and challenging repertoire ranges from Brahms and Debussy to the themes from “Game of Thrones” and Pokémon. She is also a gifted musical … Continued

Lodgers, courtesy the artists

Architecture Isn’t Just for Humans Anymore

In the remote desert of Nevada, MIT students design shelter for all species   In a rural valley of northwestern Nevada, home to stretches of wetlands, sagebrush-grassland and dozens of natural springs, is a 3,800-acre parcel of off-grid land known … Continued

Image courtesy of artist

Emma Yimeng Zhu 朱艺蒙 (SMACT ’21) Brings Ideas to Life

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

Person upside down in zero gravity
The "first contact" moment of the performance. Pease NH, May 20, 2021. Photo courtesy of Steve Boxall/Zero-G.

Rethinking Our First Encounters in Space

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

Chalk of the Day imageries.
Chalk of the Day, Courtesy of Jessie Wang '21 and Jessica Xu '21.

Inspiring Aspiring Artists: CAMIT Undergraduate Mini-Grants

MIT students have continued to perform, compose, draw, dance, build, and make in every imaginable way throughout this past year.

Woman giving online presentation
Image: Courtesy of Nancy Valladares, SMACT ’20.

Council for the Arts at MIT Supports Graduate Student Artistic Research

Graduate students and alumni discuss their work at the Council’s Annual Meeting

Two participants wearing vr goggles in Po-Hao Chi's Virtual Confinement
Po-Hao Chi, Virtual Confinement. Courtesy of the artist.

The 2021 Schnitzer Prize: Art For and From Our World

Visit the online exhibition of work by the 2021 recipients of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts. Po-Hao Chi, Chucho Ocampo, Carolyn Tam, and Nina Lutz Artists have always found their subjects and techniques in the world where … Continued

Man lying next to instruments
Image: 2021 Sudler Prize recipient Sebastian Franjou. Credit: Amelia Paine.

Sebastian Franjou ’21: Louis Sudler Prize Winner

Music, electrical engineering, and computer science Sebastian Franjou ’21 began studying classical guitar and music theory in his native France, but he chose the United States for his university education so that he could double major—ultimately choosing to pair music … Continued

Man standing in front of building
Image: Kevin Costello. Courtesy of the artist.

Thriving in the Arts at MIT: The 2021 Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Awards

Kevin Costello, Rian Flynn, Gabriel “Tony” Terrasa, and Luisa Apolaya Torres Each year, the Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Awards, which were created in 1979, acknowledge four undergraduate or graduate students, living groups, organizations or activities for their … Continued

Botanical Ghosts. Credit Nancy Valladares.

How to Talk to Ghosts

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

A gallery room with two low pedistals , one with a robotic arm and the other with ceramic bricks.
Screenshot of Misalignments online exhibition. Credit: Dalma Földesi and Jung In Seo.

Misalignments

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

Eight images of a white pillow out of which two sewn hands emerge to hug the pillow..
Taylor Boes, Prototype 01, Self-Hugging Pillow, 2020.

Council for the Arts at MIT Announces Fall 2020 Grant Recipients

  This fall funding from the Council’s Grants Committee will enable MIT’s faculty, staff, and students to pursue new, innovative forms of collaboration, performance, and engagement as well as to advance artistic practices in design, film, installation, artist books, and … Continued

Image: Virtual Playwrights Lab 2020. Courtesy of Ken Urban.

The MTA Playwrights Lab turned a hurdle into a unique opportunity for its students and recent alumni

Going online expanded the Lab’s access to theater professionals, giving students and recent alumni a chance to learn new skills, refine their plays — and work with high-caliber actors and directors When Covid-19 forced the MIT campus to shut down … Continued

Ken Urban. Credit Kevin Thomas Garcia.
Ken Urban. Credit Kevin Thomas Garcia.

Reflections on a now virtual Playwrights Lab Workshop

The MIT Music and Theater Arts Playwrights Lab workshop 21M.785J taught by Senior Lecturer Ken Urban provides students a space to work on the development of play scripts for the theater and the opportunity to collaborate with professional theater artists. … Continued

Group of dancers pose together on stage
Image: Dance Revelasian at the Taoli World Boston Regional Competition. November 2019. Credit: Benjamin Cheung Photography.

The Joy of Dance at MIT

Nothing can stop MIT students from dancing, not even stay at home orders.  Two years ago, when second-year EECS & Economics student Joy (Xingchen) Feng was deciding where to attend college, she was concerned about having artistic outlets beyond class. … Continued

Woman sitting down
Image: Mia Heavener. Courtesy of the artist.

A Writer’s Voyage: Mia Heavener, MIT Course 1, ’00

“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 SM '19. Courtesy of Devi Lockwood.

Beside Still Waters: Devi Lockwood SM ‘19

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

Council for the Arts at MIT Director Andrea Volpe
Council for the Arts at MIT Director Andrea Volpe

Council for the Arts at MIT welcomes Andrea Volpe as its new director

The Arts at MIT is pleased to announce Andrea Volpe as the director of the Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT).

Image: Artist Jorge Otero-Pailos. Credit: Paula Lobo.

Jorge Otero-Pailos ‘02 Connects Art and Architecture in Surprising Ways

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

Image: Ray Zepeda. Courtesy of Ray Zepeda.
Image: Ray Zepeda. Courtesy of Ray Zepeda.

Ray Zepeda ‘88 Recalls his Rich Musical Mentors at MIT

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

NoteStream app in use at the Blackstar concert. Photo: Justin Knight.
NoteStream app in use at the Blackstar concert. Photo: Justin Knight.

The concert program gets a digital makeover fit for Bowie

When I was an art student in New York in 1999, David Bowie visited our school and offered to host images of our work on BowieNet, an ISP he had launched the previous year. Glimpsing Bowie was enough to blow … Continued

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