Prof. Sarah Williams speaks with Erin Langer at Metropolis about the Civic Data Design Lab’s Motivational Tapestry, a large woven art piece that uses data from the United Nations World Food Program to visually represent the individual motivations of 1,624 Central Americans who have migrated to the U.S. “By allowing a dialogue to open up and be less defensive, art allows us to understand and conceptualize an issue from a different vantage point,” explains Williams.
Stir World reporter Sunena Maju spotlights “Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere,” an exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center that explores the “collaborative potential of living materials.” Maju writes that the exhibit “brings a new perspective to marrying science and art,” and “invites people to reexamine human relationships to the planet’s biosphere, through the lens of symbiosis.”
PBS host Jared Bowen highlights the scientific advancements on display at the MIT Museum. “We’re here to turn MIT inside out,” says Prof. John Durant, director of the MIT Museum. “We want people to understand what contemporary research and innovation are all about and what they mean for everyday life.”
A new exhibit at the MIT Museum, “To Look and Learn: The Creative Photography Laboratory at MIT,” documents a “varied and vital visual era” at MIT," writes Mark Feeney for The Boston Globe. One legacy of MIT’s Creative Photography Laboratory is “the tradition of rewarding photography shows at the MIT Museum," Feeney notes. "'To Look and Learn' is the latest example.”
Fast Company reporter Nate Berg spotlights the grand opening of the redesigned MIT Museum. “Braiding the science and the art together, I think it places the science into the context that it is part of our culture and our lives, it’s not a white tower experience,” says Ann Neumann, director of exhibitions and galleries at the museum.
GBH Open Studio reporter Jared Bowen explores the new MIT Museum in Kendall Square. “The reimagined MIT Museum looks at all the advances in technology and their positive – and controversial – effects on society, from genetic engineering to the increasing role that artificial intelligence is playing in art and media,” says Bowen.
Wasalu Jaco (professionally known as Lupe Fiasco), an MLK Visiting Scholar, speaks with MLK Visiting Prof. C. Brandon Ogbunu about his appointment at MIT, views on the music industry and advice for creatives. “From a research standpoint, I was like, ‘I need new things to talk about.’ Then you realize, ‘Oh, rapping isn’t just songs, it isn’t just creating bars. It’s the way we arrange ideas in a novel way,’” says Jaco. “And then I ask: Is there something deeper to that, and what’s the best space to explore that? It’s the academic space, the laboratory space.”
MIT Museum Director John Durant speaks with Boston Globe reporter Mark Feeney about the significance of the new location of the MIT Museum and what makes the museum such a special place. Of the museum’s new home in the heart of Kendall Square, Durant says, “I think MIT is committing itself here to the importance of its museum as a kind of gateway institution, as a way of helping the wider community understand what MIT is about.”
The new MIT Museum includes an exhibition by kinetic sculptor Arthur Ganson called “Gestural Engineering,” which features a collection of table-top sized kinetic sculptures. Boston Globe reporter Murray Whyte notes that “Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and The Biosphere,” an exhibition highlighting the collision of art and science, will premiere at the List Visual Arts Center on October 21 and run through February 26.
The new MIT Museum, a “purpose-built exhibition and gathering space in the heart of Kendall Square,” writes Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay, “seeks to demystify some of the school’s opaque inner workings, makes itself broadly approachable with expanded gallery space, forum areas, learning labs, and a maker hub where visitors can work on museum-led projects.” MIT Museum Director John Durant explains: “We want people to feel that this is their museum.”
The Engine has moved into a new building situated between Kendall and Central Square in Cambridge, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “Katie Rae, chief executive and managing partner of The Engine, said having a physical place for startups to work was a crucial part of the original ‘tough tech’ concept,” writes Chesto.
The new MIT Museum opens to the public this weekend in its new location in Kendall Square, which is “quite significant because this is the heart of innovation,” notes GBH’s Jared Bowen. Museum visitors will not only get a sense of MIT’s long history of innovation, but also get a sense of the scientific process, with exhibits featuring “part of the machinery that was used to help sequence the human genome, [and] the star shade petal that allowed NASA to photograph exoplanets,” Bowen explains.
“Cosmic Cowboy,” a new sci-fi opera composed by lecturer Elena Ruehr, explores “the mysteries of space, time and love,” reports Llyod Schwartz for WBUR. Additionally, Schwartz spotlights how Collage New Music, a contemporary music series directed by David Hoose, will be held on October 16, 2022 at Killian Hall.
WBUR’s Pamela Reynolds spotlights “Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere,” an upcoming exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center that explores “how organisms of different species live together and thrive because of it.” The exhibit highlights the work of over a dozen international artists and will be on display October 21 through February 26.