Creating Art – Thinking Science

Tobias Putrih, lecturer in the Art, Culture and Technology program at MIT, and Vladimir Bulović, director of MIT.nano, professor of engineering, MacVicar Fellow, and Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Chair in Emerging Technology, lead a cross-disciplinary class exploring the connections between art inquiry and scientific research through visual thinking strategies and emerging technologies.

Bulović, Putrih, and research assistant Ardalan SadeghiKivi, MArch ’23, introduce celebrated art and science collaborations and create opportunities for cross-pollination between fields. Throughout the semester, students will analyze tools used for artistic and cultural expression and experiment with technical opportunities to deliver a unique creative vision.

Upcoming Event 

4.373/4.374 Creating Art – Thinking Science
Offered Fall 2023

Lecturer in the Art, Culture, and Technology program at MIT, Tobias Putrih engages 20th-century avant-gardes—particularly utopian and visionary concepts of architecture and design—through a range of conceptual and materially ephemeral projects. In 2007, he represented Slovenia with Venetian, Atmospheric at the Venice Biennale. Putrih designs makeshift architectural modifications of public spaces—cinemas, a library, galleries, and a university commons—constructing temporary environments out of paper, cardboard, plywood, monofilament, and light.

Biography: Art, Culture & Technology Program at MIT
Website: putrih.net

Vladimir Bulović is a professor of electrical engineering at MIT and director of MIT.nano, MIT’s new nano-fabrication and prototyping facility. Bulović’s research interests include the physical properties of organic and organic/inorganic nanocrystal composite thin films and structures, and the development of novel nanostructured optoelectronic devices.

Biography: MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics
Website: onelab.mit.edu
Social: Instagram

Ardalan SadeghiKivi, MArch ’23, is an Iranian artist, designer, writer, and programmer. His work embodies magical thinking and contemporary scientific inquiry prevailing between the material and immaterial as he performs clairvoyance, manifests phantom presences, and impresses them onto artifacts through computational interfaces.

During his time at MIT, SadeghiKivi operated as a computational linguistics researcher at the Trope Tank, a research group in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing (CMS/W) department, where he worked on developing a system called Curveship for automatic narrative variation. Furthermore, he co-edited Thresholds 50: Before // After, the 50th volume of MIT Architecture’s peer-reviewed journal Thresholds, published by MIT Press. And while participating in several group shows, he exhibited two solo shows—TAKWIN at the MIT Wiesner Student Art Gallery and QUIESCE at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University.

Website: ardalansadeghikivi.com

Creating Art – Thinking Science is supported by a Cross-Disciplinary Class grant from the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and co-presented with the Art, Culture, and Technology Program at MIT (ACT) and MIT.nano.