Artistic Research Articles

Spider's Canvas at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France on November 23, 2018.
Spider's Canvas at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France on November 23, 2018. Photo by Aurelie Cenno.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation approves $1 Million grant to MIT to support the further integration of CAST into the research culture of the Institute

Third Mellon grant brings the Mellon Foundation’s total support for CAST to $4,000,000 through 2024 “CAST was established in 2012 with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” said Faculty Director Evan Ziporyn and Executive Director Leila Kinney,” and … Continued

Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, Folke Stone Power Plant, 2017, commissioned by the Creative Foundation for Folkestone Triennial 2017. Credit: Thierry Bal.
Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, Folke Stone Power Plant 2017, commissioned by the Creative Foundation for Folkestone Triennial 2017. Credit: Thierry Bal.

“Humanities through material engagement”: Gediminas Urbonas on artistic research

“The notion of ‘artistic research’ has really taken hold and captured the imagination of the art world in the past fifteen years,” explains Gediminas Urbonas, associate professor in the Art, Culture & Technology (ACT) program in the MIT School of … Continued

The Livable panel, (from left) Bettina Stoezer, Bill Maurer, Tal Danino, Claire Pentecost, and Rebecca Uchill (co-convener of the symposium). Credit: L. Barry Hetherington.
The Livable panel, (from left) Bettina Stoezer, Bill Maurer, Tal Danino, Claire Pentecost, and Rebecca Uchill (co-convener of the symposium). Credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

CAST’S “BEING MATERIAL” SYMPOSIUM HIGHLIGHTS THE CONVERGENCE OF BITS AND ATOMS

Twenty-two years ago Nicholas Negroponte, MIT Media Lab co-founder, predicted that “being digital” would lead to a future with fewer material constraints. “Being Material,” the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology’s second biennial international symposium, used Negroponte’s Being Digital … Continued

Open letter. Photo: ©Signed, Sealed & Undelivered Team, 2015. Courtesy of the Museum voor Communicatie, The Hague, The Netherlands.

MIT Libraries explore 17th-century postal archive in “Signed, Sealed, and Undelivered”

2,600 recently rediscovered early modern letters to be analyzed in groundbreaking international digital humanities project. A recently rediscovered trunk containing 2,600 letters sent from France, Spain, and the Spanish Netherlands between 1689 and 1706 will soon provide a fascinating glimpse … Continued

People climb on large inflated transparent sheets in an atrium space.
Tomas Saraceno’s “On Space Time Foam,” Hangar Bicocca Milan, 2012. Photo: Barry Hetherington.

Saraceno: Conversations on Cosmology

In Tomás Saraceno’s most recent installation On Space Time Foam, visitors are invited to enter three clear membranes of plastic suspended 25-meters in the air. The installation creates a new bodily experience, transforming everyday perceptions of space and one’s relationship to others. In this work, he takes as his material and inspiration the basics of physics: mass, energy, space, and gravity. At MIT, he had the opportunity to share his work with physicists Jerome Friedman and Robert Jaffe, Edward Farhi, and Alan Guth from MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics.

Clusters of clear orbs float in a blue sky.
Tomás Saraceno, Flying Garden/Air-Port-City, 2005. Image courtesy of Tomás Saraceno; pinksummer contemporary art, Genoa. Installation view: Villa Manin, Center for Contemporary Art, Codropio. Credit: Sillani.

Saraceno: Conversations on Atmosphere

The dream of Saraceno’s ongoing project, “Cloud City,” is not only to live among the clouds but also to create cities more like clouds – changeable, mobile, and responsive to atmospheric shifts. His experimental sculptures, expressing an aerial vision for the future, are often prototypes for incubating an interconnected existence in the sky. At MIT, Lodovica Illari, Adrian Dalca and Michael Rubinstein, and John Hansman shared with Saraceno their expertise on atmosphere and flight, representing the exciting possibilities in hinging visionary thinking to technical expertise, imaginative speculation to material realities.

A complex irregular network of many black fibers in a white gallery space.
Tomás Saraceno, 14 Billions, 2010. Credit: Studio Tomás Saraceno.

Saraceno: Conversations on Biomimicry

When asked who the audience was for his work during a public lecture here at MIT, Tomás Saraceno replied, “spiders!” Here we explore the artist’s ongoing interest in biomimicry –- the creative application of natural systems and processes towards human solutions -– through the work of several MIT researchers. Like Saraceno – whose aerial installations take inspiration from spider webs, soap bubbles, neural circuits, and cosmology – faculty Markus Buehler, Neri Oxman, and Dörthe Eisele are similarly interested in harnessing the power of nature to create new materials for a more sustainable future.