arts@MIT - News & Announcements




	News & Announcements Researchers want to know what's music to your ears (Mary Farbood, Josh McDermott) Is one man's Mozart another man's migraine? It might be, if culture plays the dominant role in music perception. Two MIT students have designed an experiment to measure just how different--or similar--perceptions of music are across cultures. MIT World Videos--Media in Transition: The Work of Stories Part I--Migratory Narratives: Why Some Stories Replicate Across Media, Cultures, Historical Eras Part 2--Why are Stories Violent? Matt Damon/MIT star in Central Square Theater benefit Cambridge native Matt Damon, who rose to stardom playing an MIT janitor and math genius in "Good Will Hunting" (1997), returned to the city on Saturday, June 25, for a theater benefit held at the Hotel@MIT. MIT author gets ticket to Hollywood Karl Iagnemma, an MIT research scientist in mechanical engineering now developing rovers to traverse the rocky dunes of Mars, has applied the language and symbols of science to the rough terrain of the human heart--and he's done it with such success that Hollywood is taking note. Student art awards presented Students who have enriched the artistic side of campus and shown exemplary talents are presented awards at various ceremonies around campus Tech Night at Pops premieres Machover commission A tradition for 108 years, Tech Night at Pops has, in recent years, featured MIT soloists and composers. This year, for the first time (as far as can be determined), Tech Night featured a work by an MIT faculty member that was commissioned by the Boston Pops itself. Check it out: MIT artist in stitches Student Art Association Program Coordinator Clay Ward (SB 1997), is the only American among 18 artists in a New York show examining the power, ubiquity and legitimacy of personal identity systems. Mary Farbood, MIT harpsichordist wins Prague competition Mary Farbood, graduate student in media arts and sciences, was awarded top honors for her harpsichord performance at the 57th Prague Spring International Music Competition MIT world music groups off on international tours Many MIT students will head home this summer, but two of MIT's performing ensembles are planning a different kind of homecoming. The student musicians in MIT's Rambax, which plays Senegalese music, and in MIT's Gamelan Galak Tika, which has its roots in Bali, are preparing to play, for the first time, in the home countries that inspired their music. Robot-made 'Kiss' wins mural contest A portrait created by Jessica Banks, a graduate student in CSAIL, and Daniel Paluska, a graduate student in mechanical engineering that explores the ability of a robot arm and a computer to create art was selected the winner of MIT's second annual Student Mural Competition. Art, technology links explored MIT faculty discussed political, personal and practical aspects of the relationship between art and technology in a symposium held May 4 to honor the inauguration of President Susan Hockfield. Photographer Felice Frankel honored Science photographer Felice Frankel, a research scientist in the School of Science, has been named the 2005 Honorary Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication. From harpsichord to Hyperscore, Farbood's musical journey spans the ages Mary Farbood is in a unique position to discuss the history of music. As a graduate student in the Media Lab, she has helped develop computer software for modern composers. And, she plays the harpsichord. Graduate student experiments, discovers poetry in chemistry Chemistry may be Mala Radhakrishnan first love, but she more recently found another: writing poetry. Radhakrishnan has compiled her earliest poems into a collection titled, "Chemistry for the Couch Potato." Poetry translator Ann Snodgrass lauded An MIT translator specializing in the work of an Italian poet once called the "czar of the blush" has received the 2004 Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets for an English edition of his selected poems. Ruth Ozeki's Feb 28 MIT reading posted on WGBH Web Forum Ozeki reads from her newest book, "All Over Creation" (2003)--winner of a 2004 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and the Willa Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction. With Ozeki's signature humor, "All over Creation," a novel about potato farming, genetic engineering and eco-terrorism tells a celebratory tale of the capacity for renewal that resides within us all. Junior Daniel Kanamori drafted for basketball flick When MIT comparative media major Daniel Kanamori '06 took more than a year off school to move to Los Angeles, he never expected to wind up sharing screen time with A-list movie star Samuel L. Jackson, but that is exactly what happened. Durant appointed head of MIT Museum John Durant, a museum director and academic researcher with extensive experience at some of England's leading science museums, has been selected as the new director of the MIT Museum Spectrum profiles freshman violinist MIT freshman Albert Chow began playing the violin at 6. At 9, he performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. MIT Alum Wins Film Award "Watermarks," a documentary by Yaron Zilberman (S.B. physics; S.M. Operation Research and Finance 1994), the story of seven Jewish women athletes who had expected to compete in the 1936 Olympics won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2004 Boston Jewish Film Festival. MIT World Video: Lecture on Swiss Design "The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy"--lecture by David P. Billington, Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering, Princeton University. Lecture showcases the work of Robert Maillart, Othmar Ammann, Heinz Isler and Christian Menn, and illustrates a Swiss tradition of 20th century bridge building. Presented in conjunction with exhibit at the Compton Gallery through December 30, 2004. The Accidental Artist Electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate Seth Coe-Sullivan never set out to become an artist, but one of his photographs took first place in an international contest sponsored by Nikon. Splendid Mag reviews MIT Wind Ensemble CD Released in Spring '04, "Waking Winds" by the MIT Wind Ensemble features works by four MIT faculty composers. MIT World Videos--2004 Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art: The University as Patron of Cutting Edge Architecture Presented in celebration of the opening of the Stata Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences. Part One: Provides an overview of MIT's architectural history as well as the history of campus design in general. Featured speakers: Jane Farver director, MIT List Visual Arts Center; James Ackerman, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus at Harvard University; Kimberly Alexander, architectural historian. MIT President Charles Vest shares his insights about the Stata Center and overseeing one of the most ambitious building initiatives in MIT history. Part Two: Architecture Professor William J. Mitchell, head, MIT Media Arts and Sciences leads a lively and insightful panel that features two Pritzker Prize Laureates-- Frank Gehry and Robert Venturi. News archives Press Release archives