Center For Art Science & Technology (CAST) Articles
2018 Arts on the Radar. Credit: Heidi Erickson.
Arts on the Radar: hundreds of students kick off a year in the arts at MIT
Fourth annual event hosted by Arts at MIT, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, and MIT Music and Theater Arts Hundreds of students flocked to MIT’s building E15 to kick off a … Continued
Ini Oguntola. Photo by L. Barry Hetherington. Jacob Collier's MIT concert 2
Student spotlight: Clarinetist Ini Oguntola ’19
When people think of the clarinet, they may conjure images of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Pete Fountain or Sabine Meyer. On Friday, May 11, 2018 however, audiences will be treated to the talents of MIT’s own Ini Oguntola, who will … Continued
The Lightweaver, photomontage of a kinetic light installation for the Future Heritage Lab at the refugee camp Al Azraq, Jordan by Azra Aksamija / FHL. Credit: Azra Aksamija, The Lightweaver, 2017.
Future Heritage Lab Devises Creative Responses to Humanitarian Crises
Artistic Collaboration Between MIT, German-Jordanian University and Refugees in the Al Azraq Camp in Jordan Associate Professor Azra Akšamija, Art, Culture & Technology Program, MIT Department of Architecture, first visited the Al Azraq refugee camp in Jordan in 2016. “Once … Continued
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
Vision in Neuroscience and Art. Students conduct visual experiments. Credit: Seth Riskin.
Q&A with Seth Riskin
Seth Riskin, SM ’89, came to MIT in 1986 to coach the women’s gymnastics team, before applying to the graduate program in Visual Studies at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), then under the direction of German artist Otto … Continued
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
WEARABLE Panelist Hussein Chalayan’s Autumn/Winter Collection, 2007.
Leila Kinney Discusses “Being Material”
MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte predicted in 1995 that “being digital” would have us entering a realm increasingly unconstrained by the materiality of the world. Two decades later, our everyday lives are indeed ever more suffused by computation and calculation. But unwieldy … Continued
Grace Leslie. Courtesy of the artist.
Evan Ziporyn Discusses “Being Material”
MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte predicted in 1995 that “being digital” would have us entering a realm increasingly unconstrained by the materiality of the world. Two decades later, our everyday lives are indeed ever more suffused by computation and calculation. But unwieldy … Continued
Claire Pentecost, "Soil-erg". Materials: soil, paper, graphite, glass, gold leaf, wire and plants. Courtesy of the artist.
Rebecca Uchill Discusses “Being Material”
MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte predicted in 1995 that “being digital” would have us entering a realm increasingly unconstrained by the materiality of the world. Two decades later, our everyday lives are indeed ever more suffused by computation and calculation. But unwieldy … Continued
'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
Being Material Conveners March for Science Statement
A statement from the symposium conveners: “BEING MATERIAL—and being digital, for that matter—demands that we be with science and engineering, both in the sense of standing with the scientific method and its results as well as in the sense … Continued
Jacob Collier. "Imagination Off the Charts," MIT, 2016. Photo: L. Barry Hetherington.
Out of his room, in his element: Jacob Collier harmonizes with MIT
A productive artist residency generally provides the yin to an artist’s yang. If daily life is distracting, for example, an artist may relish solitude. If, on the other hand, the artist is Jacob Collier, a self-contained singer-songwriter-performer-composer-arranger-producer who mostly works … Continued
Pink Anemonemefish by Keith Ellenbogen
Tactical Beauty
How underwater photography serves conservation efforts Coping with climate change is such a profoundly new part of the human experience that a new word, solastagia, has been coined to describe the emotional distress caused by violations against the planet. Underwater … Continued
Installation View, Anicka Yi: 6,070,430K of Digital Spit at MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA. Photo: Peter Harris Studio.
A ‘freer world,’ under your nose: Anicka Yi’s olfactory art
“A sense of smell was my portal to a freer world as a child. I prefer to smell someone’s sweater that’s been on the body than to look at a picture of that person,” explains CAST Visiting Artist Anicka Yi. … Continued
Student installation for “The Harmonic Archive,” 2014.
MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) receives $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Combined grants provide 8 years of funding, among largest gifts received by the arts at MIT Cambridge, MA, April 22, 2015–The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) has received $1,500,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in support … Continued
Joan Jonas (left) and Anna Kohler (right), Infinite Record Symposium, 2014. Photo: Jake Gunter.
Infinite Record: MTA symposium investigates memory & the archive
Mnemosyne, “memory,” is the mother of all the Muses. “Infinite Record: Archive, Memory, Performance,” an international conference devoted to the continuous and living archive, organized by Anna Kohler and Jay Scheib (Music & Theater Arts, MIT), celebrated memory’s role as … Continued
For your edification and enjoyment: A Guide to Arts IAPs 2015
Once again, it is time to sign up for The Independent Activities Period (IAP), a special term at MIT that runs from early January until the end of the month. IAP 2015 will run from Monday, January 5, through Friday, … Continued
Bruno Latour delivers keynote address at CAST symposium, 2014. Photo: Barry Hetherington.
Seeing/ Sounding/ Sensing: CAST’s first symposium investigates the senses and what it means to be aesthetic
In his keynote address for CAST’s first symposium, Seeing/ Sounding/ Sensing, Bruno Latour (Professor at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris) observed that “Much of our philosophy comes from the still life; it’s a disease of the Dutch. Descartes and … Continued
Elena Ruehr, Gretchen Henderson and Roomful of Teeth at Kresge Auditorium, 2014. Photo: L. Barry Hetherington.
Cassandra in the Temples: Ignored prophetess commands attention in Elena Ruehr & Gretchen Henderson’s new opera for Roomful of Teeth
When the gods hand you a gift, they also hand you a whip for self-flagellation, to paraphrase Truman Capote. The Cassandra story typifies the blessing-and-coeval-curse topos. Apollo gives Cassandra the gift of prophecy to seduce her. When she refuses, he … Continued
Student installation for “The Harmonic Archive,” 2014.
The Harmonic Archive: Music, Sound & Installation Art as Artistic Research
Anyone who rides public transportation has likely experienced this breach of commuter etiquette: fellow passengers’ oblivion to the tinny blare emanating from their headphones. Students enrolled in “The Harmonic Archive: Music, Sound & Installation Art as Artistic Research” have used … Continued
Carpaccio vegetal. Photo: Mugaritz.
“Opportunities for novelty are on the table”: MIT Professor Pedro Reis Collaborates with Chefs from Mugaritz
“Food is connected to everything—language, texture, tradition,” claimed Chef Dani Lasa of Mugaritz to a packed audience at MIT. Now, the R&D chef can add engineering to that list thanks to Pedro Reis, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering … Continued
MIT Sounding: New Annual Music Series
MIT Presents New Music Series: MIT Sounding Featuring World Premieres, Reconstructed Classics, and Grammy Award winning musicians in new concert series For the 2014-15 season, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) inaugurates the innovative annual performance series MIT Sounding, curated by … Continued
Seeing/ Sounding/ Sensing: CAST Symposium in Context
On September 26-27, CAST is convening artists, neuroscientists and scholars in the visual arts, music, physics, mathematics, history, anthropology and philosophy to participate in the symposium “Seeing / Sounding / Sensing.” Organized by MIT Professors Caroline A. Jones (Chair) and … Continued
Credit: Andy Ryan
Resonating MIT: MIT Students Explore Intersections of Sound and Architecture
Students create sound installations inspired by Visiting Artists Scanner, Stephen Vitiello, and Either/Or.