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People walking in large room with headsets
As the 2018–20 Dasha Zhukova Distinguished Visiting Artist, Matthew Ritchie creates a new transmedia work in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of MIT artists, faculty, and students. This new collaborative work takes inspiration from the “invisible college” of MIT: the interactions, discussions, and thought processes that take place outside of the formal classroom and administrative structure of the Institute.

The Invisible College

In the late days of January in 2020, Matthew Ritchie staged a beta version of his VR game, The Invisible College, in the U-shaped atrium of MIT’s Physics building, a former century-old courtyard. On the bright grid-like floor designed by … Continued

The Silence, 2019. Credit: Jay Scheib.
Jay Scheib, The Silence, 2019. Credit: Jay Scheib.

Live theater meets peak cinematic modernism in a new work inspired by a Bergman movie

Reserve your ticket to The Silence, part of the MIT Performing Series The Silence Work-in-Progress Performance Directed by Jay Scheib December 12-14, 2019 / 7:30pm Free for students, $5 general admission MIT Theater Building W97, 345 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA … Continued

Isabelle Su: "I control what part of the web the viewer sees while Ian Hattwick plays with the hearing distance. All the fibers within this hearing distance (in blue/white) are sonified while the fibers outside of this range (in green/brown) do not produce sound. Evan Ziporyn and Christine Southworth improvise with the web instrument, building on Ian's sound, with Evan on EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) and Christine on electric guitar with EBow."

A Three-Dimensional Spider Web Soundscape Comes to Life

Spider’s Canvas was performed February 16-18, 2019 at the MIT Building W97 Main Theater. Visit sounding.mit.edu for more information. Following the live performances, the piece was displayed in the MIT.nano Building 12 in Spring 2019.     Spider’s Canvas / … Continued

Jacob Collier's newest album "DJESSE Vol. 1" is the follow up recording to the 2017 double Grammy-winning "In My Room."

A Jazz Wunderkind, A Haitian Pop Star and Spider Webs at MIT Sounding Series

Album Release Celebration: Djesse Volume 1 What do a jazz wunderkind, a Haitian pop star and spider webs all have in common? They’ll all be making appearances throughout the MIT Sounding Series 2018-19 season. The series kicks off with a familiar … Continued

Pedro Reyes, Manufacturing Myschief,Noam Chomsky. Credit: HErickson/MIT.
Pedro Reyes, Manufacturing Myschief,Noam Chomsky. Credit: HErickson/MIT.

Object Lesson: Noam Chomsky Puppet

Object Lesson is an ongoing blog series that highlights some of the art, artifacts, machines, devices, books, instruments and tools that give physical form to ideas that enhance the MIT campus and community. What is the Noam Chomsky puppet? This … Continued

Two actors read from scripts while others look on.
MTA Playwrights Lab, 2018. Photo: Sarah Wagner.

MTA Playwrights Lab Gives Young Writers a Professional Experience

On a recent Friday evening, six people gathered around a table in a mostly-empty studio in MIT’s new Theater Arts building on the western edge of campus. In a few hours time, the group—local actors Marge Buckley and Sarah Bedard, … Continued

Photo of man interacting with floating sculptures from the Aerocene Project
Aerocene. Credit: KHigginsMIT

MIT Arts Events at the 2018 Cambridge Science Festival

Every spring, the Cambridge Science Festival (CSF) makes science accessible, engaging and fun for everyone through multifaceted, multicultural events. In spring 2018, Arts at MIT created a list of of CSF events that taking place on the MIT campus. We … Continued

(Clockwise, from top left) Clarinetists Don Byron, Billy Novick, Eran Egozy and Evan Ziporyn.

The Great Clarinet Summit Shines A Light On An Oft-Overlooked Instrument

The Clarinet The clarinet is not generally considered the most heroic of instruments. In classical music, that honor belongs to the violin. In jazz, it’s the saxophone; in rock, the guitar. But the clarinet, a single reed woodwind that is … Continued

Marcus Thompson. Credit: Donna Coveney.
Marcus Thompson. Credit: Donna Coveney.

A Recital By Violist Marcus Thompson Is A Chance To Reflect On Progress, Both Personal and Political

A Momentous Day April 4, 1968 was a momentous day for Marcus Thompson. That was the day that the young violist made his debut in a recital at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It also turned out to … Continued

A Tribute to Lou Harrison Honors His Love Affair with Javanese Music

Lou Harrison The great American composer Lou Harrison tried his hand at many things: painting, calligraphy and poetry, to name but a few. He went through a great many musical phases as well, inspired by the experimental work of both … Continued

Lou Harrison. Courtesy of the artist.

MIT’s Sounding Concert Series Is All About Coming Together

This fall sees the return of the MIT Sounding series—and, as usual, a penchant for border crossings and experimentation. The season kicks off on October 12 with a tribute concert to the influential composer Lou Harrison, who would have turned 100 … Continued

Guillermo E. Brown. Bee Boy. Photo: Dekoit Pictures.
Guillermo E. Brown. Bee Boy, directed by Charlotte Brathwaite, MIT 2017. Credit: Dekoit Pictures.

Bee Boy uplifts in the face of inequity’s sting

The word Ba, represented by a bee-sign in hieroglyphs, meant ‘soul,’ ‘honey’ and ‘bee’ to Ancient Egyptians. This ancient commingling of our fate with bees isn’t lost on MIT assistant professor of theater arts Charlotte Brathwaite, whose new project Bee … 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

Luciana Souza and Guillermo Klein. Image credit: Souza (left) by Kim Fox and Klein (right) courtesy of the artist.
Luciana Souza and Guillermo Klein. Image credit: Souza (left) by Kim Fox and Klein (right). Photo: Courtesy of the artists.

With “Works on Hope,” Latin Jazz Luminaries Guillermo Klein and Luciana Souza Invite MIT Into Their Tribe

Back in the mid-90s, the Brazilian-born singer Luciana Souza, who was living in Boston at the time, would sometimes drive down to New York to sit in on a Monday night session at the legendary Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich … Continued

John Harbison. Photo: Tom Artin.
John Harbison. Photo: Tom Artin.

MIT Orchestra Plays Homage to the Mischief And Wit of Haydn and Harbison

The program for this year’s MIT Symphony Orchestra concert can be traced back to the day that John Harbison first encountered the music of Joseph Haydn. “I was a string player as a kid. I played violin, but I wanted … Continued

'Mytho? Lure of Wildness,' 2016. Photo: Paula Court.
'Mytho? Lure of Wildness,' 2016. Photo: Paula Court.

Actor-Director-Physicist Adam Strandberg

Adam Strandberg graduated from MIT in 2014 with a degree in physics. While a student, he was in 20 theatrical productions, from David Mamet’s Speed­-the­-Plow to Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman to William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. He received the Wiesner Student … Continued

Maya Beiser performs cello on stage.
Maya Beiser performs "Uncovered" during the 2015-16 MIT Sounding Series. Credit: Justin Knight.

Evan Ziporyn’s ‘Ambient Orchestra’ Honors Bowie With Blackstar Concert

PUBLIC PERFORMANCE Maya Beiser and the Ambient Orchestra perform David Bowie’s Blackstar March 3, 2017 / 7:30pm MIT Kresge Auditorium, W16 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA   It has been just over a year since the news of David Bowie’s … Continued

duoJalal. Courtesy of the artists.
duoJalal. Courtesy of the artists.

In duoJalal, A Real-Life Marriage Leads To A Musical One

The day the two members of duoJalal met in 1998 marked a convergence of musical worlds. Violist Kathryn Lockwood had launched a career in chamber music, while Yousif Sheronick excelled in a gamut-spanning array of percussive traditions, from Brazilian folk … Continued

Nik Bärtsch's Mobile: Modul 8_11 live at EXIL, 2014. Credit: SRF, Swiss Television.

Minimalism Meets Funk In Nik Bärtsch’s MOBILE Ensemble

When he was young, the Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch was obsessed with rhythm. Once, when his father brought him along to a party, he spent the whole evening drumming on an ashtray. Nowadays he is apt to reach … Continued

"Hajanga," is the fourth and final single from Collier's debut album, 'In My Room'.

Behind the Artwork: Ben Bloomberg Creates Live Performance Systems for Virtuoso Multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier

CAST Visiting Artist Jacob Collier is well known for his YouTube videos, which the 22-year-old musical phenom performs and produces in his bedroom in North London. Collier’s work has garnered praise from such jazz icons as Herbie Hancock and Quincy … Continued

"Don't You Know," an original song from Jacob's debut album 'In My Room'.
"Don't You Know," an original song from Jacob Collier's debut album 'In My Room'. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Jazz Prodigy Jacob Collier Infuses Technology with Humanity at MIT

Explosively rhythmic music Jacob Collier is not like other YouTube stars. The English 22-year-old rose to fame with inventive video covers of popular songs like Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.” and Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” the arrangements rendered in dizzying multiplicity … Continued

Sumie Kaneko. Courtesy of the artist.
Sumie Kaneko. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

Sumie Kaneko and Gamelan Galak Tika Connect Japan, Bali and the Avant-Garde for MIT’s World Music Day

Sumie Kaneko, an Omnivourous Musician When the Japanese koto and shamisen player Sumie Kaneko was invited to perform with Gamelan Galak Tika for MIT’s World Music Day, she was elated. Kaneko—who holds a degree in traditional Japanese music from Tokyo … Continued

Joe Lovano with Gunther Shuller. Courtesy of the artist.
Joe Lovano with Gunther Shuller. Courtesy of the artist.

Jazz Legend Joe Lovano Pays Tribute To Gunther Schuller’s Searching Spirit

Back in 2014, the legendary post-bop jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano met his friend and mentor, the great composer Gunther Schuller, for dinner in Boston. At 88, Schuller was in the midst of a particularly fertile period. That year he premiered … Continued

Kaynak Pipers Band. Courtesy of the artist.
Kaynak Pipers Band. Courtesy of the artist.

The Kaynak Pipers Band Brings A Centuries-Old Bagpipe Tradition Down From The Mountains To The Rest Of The World

Cvetelin Andreev became enamored with the kaba gaida, a type of Bulgarian bagpipe, eleven years ago, after spending several weeks hiking Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountain range alone. “If you stay, let’s say, two weeks, only with yourself, you change a bit,” … Continued

Simon Smith. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

Pianist Simon Smith Finds The Nuance In Stockhausen’s Grand Vision

Simon Smith remembers vividly his first encounter with the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen. The piece was Trans, a composition for orchestra and recorded sound that the German composer, a giant of mid-century contemporary music, wrote in 1971. “It was immediately like … Continued

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