Reception: March 11, 5-6pm Soft City is a large-scale textile series that maps the urban fabric of Black neighborhoods in the Boston area. The tapestries map historic (redlined) and contemporary Black neighborhoods, including Roxbury, Dorchester, and East Cambridge. The information mapped tells the story of the past, present and future of Black residents, and the ecological resilience of the neighborhoods they live in. Hard (impervious) and soft (pervious) land uses are codified using colors with overlays of future tree plantings and flood zones on the tapestry. The softness and materiality of tufting interrogates the traditional top-down approach to space planning […]

The Shingles Nest is a small pavilion installation that inhabits the Rotch Library and serves as a reading corner; visitors are invited to sit inside and enjoy the privacy and warmth of the wooden cocoon. The project is based on the local mining of material waste streams and proposes a shingling system as an assembly strategy that could extend to the upcycling of any sheet material offcuts. The structure is a self-supporting shingle assembly composed of wooden planks of different sizes salvaged from the recycling stream of heavy-duty pallets on campus. The planks are cleaned, and the wood is re-valuated […]

By combining the intensity of poetry with vivid imagery, The Poetry of Science aims to strengthen the voices and experiences of distinct communities of color, synthesizing a striking poetic and visual language to help fill the gap between the sciences and the humanities. The Poetry of Science creates positive associations between people of color, the arts, the sciences, how nature is perceived, and what it means to generate knowledge. Presented are the visual representation of scientists as integral parts of the natural landscape, embedded into the very foundation of reality that they study, observe, seek to understand, and create. Accompanying […]

What does it mean to remember? Sited in four Italian towns that have been indelibly changed by natural disasters, this exhibition explores the notion of architectural memory. Across Pompeii, Catania, Poggioreale, and Gibellina, each town embodies a unique approach towards destruction and preservation. The “perfectly” preserved ruins of Pompeii are set against the bustling capital of Catania, the ghost town of Poggioreale, and the crumbling modernist art installations of Gibellina. Curators: Yichen Jia, SMArchS in Design and Computation and MS in EECS 2020, Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning Charisse Foo, B.Arch 2018, College of Architecture, Art, and […]

Despite being known mostly for its strength in science and technology, MIT is home to many skilled artists who pursue their work inside and outside the Institute. This exhibition features works primarily by staff members from a variety of (non-arts related) departments, labs, and centers at MIT who are also visual artists, affiliated with MIT Artists Beyond the Desk. These works present a variety of thoughtful images reflecting their lives at home, in our community, and traveling. This exhibit features work by the following talented artists/employees: Sarah Carlson John Doyle Margo Gabriel Lara Holt Carolyn Jundzilo-Comer Sharon Lacey Thea Paneth […]

The Irrawaddy River is the major waterway and largest river in Myanmar. It flows from north to south and it is used by Burmese people daily to take baths, do laundry, wash vegetables, and transport goods for trade and other commercial purposes. The vehicles used along the river include small homemade boats, tug boats, dredging boats, festivity boats, raft boats that move entire homes as the water level changes throughout the year. And then there are the tour boats. Among the tour boats are the Irrawaddy Flotilla river boats that go back to the days of the British Empire and […]

This year the Grand Canyon National Park is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. This exhibit looks at four areas regarding this spacious ecological world wonder: geology, exploration, tourism and other impacts, and the woman “architect,” Mary Colter. 2019 also marks the 150th Anniversary of geologist John Wesley Powell’s remarkable adventure down to and through the Canyon. Curated by Chris Sherratt, Michael Noga, and Kai Alexis Smith, MIT Libraries Exhibit located in the reading room panels and cases.

The design studio “A Theater Without Theater” invited students to explore the architectural potentials of the theatrical. Discovering productive intersections with theater, students acquired a better understanding of architecture and the city. Three historical theaters: Total Theater by Walter Gropius, Rusakov Workers´ Club by Konstantin Melnikov and Anatomical Theater by Paolo Sarpi and Dario Varotari were analyzed and used as raw material for a sequence of three projects where “Performance”, “Stage” and “Spectator” served as gateways to engage with “Program”, “Space/Site” and “User/Citizen”. Spring Semester 2019 Instructor: Cristina Parreño Alonso Teaching Assistant: Jaehun Woo Students: Alicia Nimrick Caroline Rosenzweig Jackie […]

This exhibition is by Boston-based writer and artist and 2007 MIT alumni Will Dowd. These thirteen prints use the paintings of Vermeer—those paragons of visual perfection—to explore issues of sight and optics. By manipulating these iconic artworks, Dowd allows viewers to see through his eyes—and visual impairment—thereby offering a fresh look at an old master.