Ana Sofia Lopes Da Ponte, a graduate student in MIT’s Visual Arts program, has just installed the “Dreaming Lounge.” This interactive piece of art will be on exhibit through January 11.

In her own words, “I designed a daybed for Barker so that the users of the space can experiment with their physical relation with the space. The design of the Dreaming Lounge considers the situation of a researcher that is in a library setting daily. It offers him/her the possibility to continue the research activity while dreaming. Attached to the seat of the bed is a canopy that smoothly unfolds above the dreamer’s body. When the back of the seat is manually pulled down by the user, a canopy situated in the upper part of the daybed rises, protecting the user’s head from exterior elements such as sound and light of the space.”