A new exhibit by Azza El Siddique, a sculptor and mixed media artist, will be on display at the MIT List Visual Arts Center this summer, reports Pamela Reynolds for WBUR. Reynolds notes that in this show, “viewers are invited to contemplate the transitory nature of everything.”
Artist Matthew Angelo Harrison’s solo exhibition “Robota” is on display at the MIT List Visual Arts Center through July 24. The exhibition “positions organized labor and workers’ rights as entombed relics, victims of post-industrial economy,” writes Murray Whyte for The Boston Globe.
MIT celebrated the Classes of 2020 and 2021 during a special ceremony on May 28 that featured an address by Kealoha Wong ’99, Hawaii’s first poet laureate, reports Laura Crimaldi for The Boston Globe. “We may make some esoteric discovery or some small contribution to our industries, but most likely, our most significant impact will be in our communities and in our families,” Kealoha said. “Our impact will be felt in the way that we treat others and the way that we treat ourselves.”
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Emily Richmond Pollock and University of Michigan Prof. Kira Thurman explore how the idea that performing or listening to classical music is an apolitical act flourished in the wake of World War II due to the process of denazification. “In moments of war and violence, it can be tempting to either downplay classical music’s involvement in global events or emphasize music’s power only when it is used as a force for what a given observer perceives as good,” they write.
Prof. Ekene Ijeoma speaks with KUER’s Ivana Martinez about his group’s art project, “A Counting,” which spotlights people counting to 100 in their native languages. “I think [this is] speaking to ideas of what it means to live in this diverse society,” said Ijeoma. “And whether or not we're able to live up to the dream of this society, which is — we're a multicultural place. Can we actually be that?”
With the announcement of the new MIT Morningside Academy for Design, MIT is looking to create “a hub of resources for the next generation of designers, integrating areas of study such as engineering and architecture in the process,” reports Dana Gerber for The Boston Globe. “This is really going to give us a platform to connect with the world around problems that communities are facing,” explained Prof. John Ochsendorf, who will serve as the academy’s founding director.
Prof. Emily Richmond Pollock speaks with Isaac Chotiner of The New Yorker about how some Western institutions have cancelled performances by Russian artists following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Some of the discussion of these issues has fallen into some old patterns of thinking that we as musicologists are alert to,” says Pollock, “and want to warn against, which includes reacting to these kinds of bans by insisting that music is apolitical, or that there’s something fundamentally and inherently apolitical about music, which is a really problematic and untrue statement, and a knee-jerk response.”
MIT has announced the creation of a new multidisciplinary center, called Morningside Academy for Design, which is intended to serve as a “focal point for design research, education, and entrepreneurship,” reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes.
MIT has announced the establishment of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design, reports Susan H. Greenberg for Inside Higher Ed. The new center “aims to foster collaboration and innovation across academic disciplines – including engineering, science, management, computing, architecture, urban planning and the arts – to address such pressing global issues as climate change, public health, transportation, and civic engagement,” writes Greenberg.
Sculptor Matthew Angelo Harrison and artist Raymond Boisjoly will both have art installations on display at the MIT List Visual Arts Center this upcoming spring, reports Pamela Reynolds for WBUR. Reynolds notes that Boisjoly’s “latest work continues the artist’s practice of working with text, photography and images in consideration of how language, culture and ideas can be framed and transmitted.” Harrison, “has frozen union organizing artifacts into chunks of resin,” writes Reynolds.
Assia Boundaoui, a fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, writes for The Los Angeles Times about her experience as a Muslim American filmmaker. “Despite the many ways we have been marginalized within the film industry, Muslim and Middle Eastern filmmakers will continue to tell our stories – stories where our humanity is assumed, not a subject of debate,” writes Boundaoui.
Boston Globe reporter Peter Keough spotlights artist JR’s new documentary “Paper and Glue,” which will be screened at the MIT List Visual Arts Center on Jan. 20. “JR takes on trouble spots around the globe, where he involves oppressed communities in creating the blown-up, immersive photo installations that are his oeuvre and which make a strong case that art can” change the world, writes Keough.
WBUR reporter Pamela Reynolds spotlights a new exhibit of Sharona Franklin’s work, which will be on display at the MIT List Visual Arts Center this coming February. “Franklin presents a new installation combining the themes of chronic illness with bioethics, environmental harm and holistic approaches to healthcare,” writes Reynolds.
MIT startup Formlabs has announced a new pair of 3D printers featuring an exposure and printing speed increase that is up to 40% faster than previous models, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “The Form 3+ is the next iteration designed to help users go from idea to part in hand as quickly and easily as possible,” says CEO Max Lobovsky MS ’11.
Gramophone contributor Laurence Vittes spotlights Prof. Tod Machover’s “Death and the Powers,” an opera about robots and humans that has recently been released as an “electrifying surround-sound thriller.” Vittes writes that “Machover’s arsenal of music stands triumphantly on its own, fusing and defusing technoflash from the composer’s MIT Media Lab with rich writing for Gil Rose’s Boston Modern Orchestra ensemble.”