Arts

Writing for The Messenger, graduate student Kartik Chandra highlights the MIT Art Lending Program, which allows students to select one piece from the List Visual Arts Center’s collection to keep in their dorm rooms for the duration of the academic year. “Three years into my time at MIT, I’m convinced the program works well,” writes Chandra. “Our relationship with art changes from the moment we walk into the gallery. As students wander, pondering what to take home, conventional measures of fame, monetary worth, and even beauty fall away, and the only question that matters becomes: Does this piece speak to you, personally? And something always does — as if it were put there just for you.”

Prof. Tod Machover speaks with Boston Globe reporter A.Z. Madonna about the restaging of his opera ‘VALIS’ at MIT, which features an AI-assisted musical instrument developed by Nina Masuelli ’23.  “In all my career, I’ve never seen anything change as fast as AI is changing right now, period,” said Machover. “So to figure out how to steer it towards something productive and useful is a really important question right now.”

Tomashi Jackson SMACT ’12 has been awarded the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum’s Rappaport Prize which honors local artists who have “demonstrated significant creativity and vision,” reports Emma Glassman-Hughes for The Boston Globe. Jackson says much of her work “is defined by the push and pull of ‘grief and joy’ and how they appear differently in public and private contexts,” writes Glassman-Hughes.

Gus Solomons Jr. '61, a “groundbreaking force in modern dance” has died at 84, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “Teacher, student, dancer, and choreographer, [Solomons Jr.] was based in New York City and commuted to Boston to spend each Tuesday teaching,” writes Marquard. “Performances with numerous dance groups in both cities packed his calendar, even before he made history as the first Black member of the legendary Merce Cunningham Dance Company.”

Using techniques inspired by kirigami, a Japanese paper-cutting technique, MIT researchers have developed a “a novel method to manufacture plate lattices – high performance materials useful in automotive and aerospace designs,” reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “The kirigami-augmented plate lattices withstood three times as much force as standard aluminum corrugation designs,” writes Paul. “Such variations show immense promise for lightweight, shock-absorbing sections needed within cars, planes, and spacecraft." 

Gus Solomons Jr. ’61, “a leading figure in modern and postmodern dance,” has died at 84, reports Gia Kourlas for The New York Times. Solomons began dancing at age 4, but didn’t begin training until he was a first year student at MIT, where he earned a degree in architecture. “Over his long career, Mr. Solomons danced with many companies and many choreographers, including Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham,” Kourlas notes. “He broke ground as the first Black dancer to join the Cunningham company.”

AP reporter Ronald Blum spotlights the premiere of Prof. Jay Scheib’s augmented reality-infused production of Wagner’s “Parsifal” at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. “We sort of focus on a future society in which myth has become possible again," says Scheib. "But at the same time, we’re not that far in the future and the third act is set around a broken lithium-ion field. We’re set in a world that is somehow post-planet and post-collapse of energy production.”

Janet Echelman, the 2022-2023 Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist at CAST, speaks with The Conversation about her journey to becoming a sculptor, her creative process, and future projects. “It’s important to me that each person can create their own meaning from art,” says Echelman. “They are the expert in their own experience. If my work offers a moment of contemplation and allows you to feel a sense of calm and your own interconnection with the wind, sun, people and city, then that’s all I could hope for.”

Writing for Forbes, research affiliate John Werner spotlights Prof. Stefanie Mueller’s presentation at the CSAIL Imagination in Action event on her work developing a new type of paint that allows users to change the color and pattern of different objects. “The long-term vision here, really, is to give those physical objects the same capabilities as we have in digital,” said Mueller. “I hope in the future we will all get some free stuff, and we would just have an [app] where we can download different textures we can apply, and change our outfits.”

Writing for The Conversation, postdoc Ziv Epstein SM ’19, PhD ’23, graduate student Robert Mahari and Jessica Fjeld of Harvard Law School explore how the use of generative AI will impact creative work. “The ways in which existing laws are interpreted or reformed – and whether generative AI is appropriately treated as the tool it is – will have real consequences for the future of creative expression,” the authors note.  

The MIT List Visual Arts Center is offering free admission on Juneteenth for visitors to view three exhibits, reports Abigail Lee for The Boston Globe. “In the exhibitions, New York-based Alison Nguyen explores the cultural effects of cinematic storytelling, Philadelphia-based Lex Brown combines social issues and satiristic humor, and Berlin-based Sung Tieu uses different spatial configurations to reflect political questions,” writes Lee.

Popular Science reporter Andrew Paul spotlights “Ways of Seeing” a documentary project that aims to create “extended reality” (XR) experiences of significant architectural locales in Afghanistan as part of an effort to preserve the country’s historical sites. Paul notes that the project combines “cutting edge 3D imaging, drone photography, and virtual reality combined with painstakingly detailed hand drawings.”

Eleven fellows have been selected for the 2023-2024 Morningside Academy for Design (MIT MAD) program, reports Designboom, which is focused on offering “opportunities for students, faculty, and the general public to explore the intersection of design, technology, and social impact.” The fellowship program is aimed at helping designers have a “real-world impact in fields such as sustainability, architecture, health, and social justice.”

Popular Science spotlights a sampling of the winning pictures from this year’s MIT Koch Institute Image Awards, an annual competition showcasing some of the images produced as part of life science and biomedical research at MIT. “Today, high-magnification images can help design new medical tools, enrich our understanding of diseases, and explain how embryos develop. And, as shown by the 2023 winners from the MIT Koch Institute Image Awards, they can be works of art, too.”

Alum X Zhu-Nowell has been named the new artistic director of the Rockbund Art Musuem and will be relaunching the museum with a series of six solo-artist exhibitions, reports Caroline Roux for the Financial Times. “It’s a collection of solo projects that together form a group,” says Zhu-Nowell. “It shows the artists as individuals but not alone, and myself as part of a community.”