EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Leah Talatinian
Senior Officer for Marketing and Communications
Some mixture of encyclopaedic curiosity, revolutionary zeal and noblesse oblige gave rise to public museums in the 18th century. The first of this kind, the British Museum, opened in 1759 with free entry to “all studious and curious persons.” The … Continued
When he was six years old, Daniel Parker saw his sister perform in a choir concert. Afterward, he sat down at the piano and began to sound out the what her ensemble had sung. “When my mom saw that, she … Continued
During his residency at MIT, McDermott Award recipient David Adjaye has connected ideas expressed in his architecture to topics that are of particular interest to the MIT community this academic year. He addressed the “Future of the Library” at a … Continued
MIT Museum Exhibition Highlights What Was New About the New Tech You have probably stared at a blank screen, a white canvas or an empty stage and felt some mixture of anxiety and exhilaration over the prospect of beginning a … Continued
Amphibian advances the field of VR while exploring the relationship between diving and disability “My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly,” Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote in his agonizingly beautiful account of living with severe … Continued
The lyrics to many alma maters celebrate their colleges’ resplendent places—the “hallowed halls” and “time-honored walls,” the surrounding “golden orchards” or “sunlit slopes.” There is no mention of that well-lit basement lab, or secluded corner for thinking and napping, or … Continued
The New York Times: “At MIT, Science Embraces a New Chaos Theory: Art” The Center for Art, Science & Technology “has revitalized an MIT model begun in the late 1960s of bringing in artists to humanize technology and create more expansive-thinking … Continued
Photos and text by Keith Ellenbogen, CAST Visiting Artist My work focuses on underwater photography, but sometimes it’s good to step away and try to use my photography skills in a totally different way, enabled by the fantastic resources here … Continued
Beyond being a book repository, the ancient Library of Alexandria was a working resource for scholars. Joined physically to the Mouseion—a Greek word meaning a place where the Muses are active—the library contained a lecture hall (exedra), a refectory for … Continued
It took more than market momentum or critical acclaim to have a breakout year in 2015.
Bettering student life one pot at a time For half a century, the MIT Arts Studios (previously the Student Art Association or SAA) has been offering non-curricular studio art courses to the MIT community, and its popularity has increased with … Continued
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly matter; it occurs … Continued
Anna Kohler (Senior Lecturer, MTA) spent a good portion of the Spring semester merrily knocking idols off pedestals. With comical derision, she toppled eminent poets Byron, Coleridge and Wordsworth, and took a couple of her own heroes, Bresson and Matisse, … Continued
The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts is awarded annually to undergraduate and graduate students at MIT for excellence in a body of artistic work. The Schnitzer Prize was established in 1996 through an endowment from Harold … Continued
“Wherever you look in science”, says MIT Museum Director John Durant, “you see the historical importance of finding new ways of visualizing things, leading to greater understanding of the world. From Galileo’s use of his own hand-built telescope to explain … Continued
Michael Render – better known as Killer Mike – is an Atlanta-based rapper, political activist and one half of the popular duo Run the Jewels. Render presented the second lecture in MIT’s Hip Hop Speaker Series, “Race Relations in the … Continued
Forget the balsa wood and foam core of yesterday’s design classes. Students in Skylar Tibbits’s innovative studio course are using everything from gummy bears to glass to rubber to foam, to create three-dimensional representations of the generative drawings they produced … Continued
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly matter; it occurs … Continued
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly matter; it occurs … Continued
Professor Emerita Joan Jonas taught at MIT from 1998–2014, and her pioneering performance, video, and installation works from 1960 onward have secured her a place in art history’s firmament. Influence, however, is a more personal and earthly matter; it occurs … Continued
Artist Joan Levy Hepburn and Joe Bouchard (Blue Öyster Cult) presented their work in painting, color and music in the IAP course “Colors, Chords, Creativity,” which was sponsored by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Influenced by mentorships with … Continued
A couple familiar red and white bags from the COOP bursting with MIT textbooks sat in a corner of the green room while legendary audio engineer and DJ, Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton, talked to the press before his recent lecture … Continued
The concert reminded me that you don’t have to understand what a person is saying (or in this case, singing) to know that it is beautiful. In fact, there is something almost spiritual about hearing something graceful and elegant that … Continued
For Joel Leivick, the Carrara marble quarries — the place where Michelangelo obtained the stone from which he liberated his David — represent a complex geological and cultural terrain. Laura Volkerding’s silver gelatin prints document centuries old craft workshops for … Continued
At this year’s Armory Show in New York (March 5-8), Art Jameel and Edge of Arabia will present the latest iteration of CULTURUNNERS, as part of the fair’s regional focus on MENAM (Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean). The Armory … Continued
