Classes

Place is location, but it’s also people, relationships, and memories, the site of things forgotten, suppressed or unrecorded, terrible and ordinary ways of being. The experience of people and peoples who have migrated, been displaced or exiled add further complexity to place: perhaps, an unshakeable orientation to elsewhere or a sense of in-betweenness; or, a simultaneous yet imperfect belonging to both here and there, to neither here nor there; an intermittent or constant feeling of being entirely out of place. What is a diasporic sense of place, how do we image or describe it, and how might it reimage space and place to define a territory for spatial practice?

This workshop is part of Self and Work, a series that began in 2018 as part of Experiments in Pedagogy at MIT Architecture. Self and Work centers the personal, the body, and lived experience as site of knowledge. In this workshop we will center the diasporic experience as a place from which we might draw upon to produce non-hegemonic understandings of space and place.
We will study work by authors and artists whose lives and works are profoundly influenced by their own relation to place.

Drones are providing us with new ways to map, monitor, and measure our changing landscape. Advances in digital image processing enable one to go from flying a drone to working with accurate maps and 3D models in a matter of hours. This course examines the applications of drones in which the aerial perspective can be integrated into architecture, engineering and construction practice. In this course, students will gain hands-on experience with drone vehicles, sensors, image processing software and applications. Students will learn how to use drones to help them better understand our changing environment. With the proliferation of drones there are increasing opportunities to use drones for scientific remote sensing data acquisition and applications. 

This course focuses on understanding the fundamentals behind acquiring imagery data with drone-based cameras (e.g. multi-spectral and thermal) and processing the data for various applications. Students will also get to know the fundamentals of open source and proprietary software packages as they relate to UAV technology, drone operations, flight planning and data collection and management as well as how to integrate resulting data into other software tools such as GIS, BEM and Python libraries. Recognizing the critical role that AI will play in defining the future international competition, many countries now regard AI as a national priority. The United States launched the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative in 2019 with the mission to promote its leadership in AI research, development, and application. One of the eight national strategies identified in this initiative is to “provide education and training opportunities to prepare the American workforce for the new era of AI”.  

In this course, students will go through aerial data processing, mainly data collected from drones, including working with Orthomosaic, Digital Terrain models (DTMs), Digital Surface Models (DSMs), Point Cloud, and 3D mesh modeling. This course will also provide technical and applied knowledge on using drones for building assessment through aerial thermography and the use of UAVs in various applications. The course will also cover the technical foundation of enhanced data processing using AI, including image segmentation and object identification, and feature extraction basics using computer vision techniques in Python. Upon completion of this course, students will have theoretical and applied and technical knowledge that will aid them to use UAVs in various applications. This course is the extended version of Eyes in The Sky Workshop that was offered during IAP 2022, which resulted in 2D mapping of Briggs field and 3D modelling of Simmons Hall at MIT campus. 

UG: 4.s30  G: 4.s35

An introduction to the tools and concepts of capturing and transitioning forms between the human scale and nanoscale. The generation of simulation-based art projects reflects these explorations and the ways they can be used in the context of art, culture, and technology. What dialogs can engage with society when operating on sub-visible scales or taking forms from the nano into the human macro scale, creating artistic simulations, motion from form, or form from motion?

Students will collaborate with MIT Nano on final projects intended for public exhibition in a gallery setting.

Undergraduate: 4.s30 | Graduate: 4.s32

Introduction to Interactive, Participatory and Generative Art Making introduces the basics of creating art projects that interact with participants and/or environment using a variety of code and hardware based solutions.

Divided into 3 sections:

1. Max/MSP/Jitter: is a graphical object based coding environment with virtual buttons, switches, timers, counters and many other modules, and the ability to communicate with other devices - one of the best way to 
create virtual and physical spaces with interactive A/V components without having to write code and as such is used extensively by musicians, interactive installation artists, VJs and more worldwide. Can be exported as an app for sharing and distribution

2. Physical computing using Ardiuno technology: using input sensors whose data can be interpreted and used to create interaction. Control or interact with anything from lights, speakers, motors to communicating with Max or Processing or P5.js and more.Processing and P5.js will be included as alternative code environments.

3. Web based interactivity using CSS and Javascript, for interactive animation and all the types of interactivity based on mouse and touch based input for screens and mobile devices. We will explore how AI can help generate, correct and validate code in this space and how it can be leveraged for interactive art purposes.

4.s30/4.s32 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Protected)

UG: 4.s30 | G: 4.s32

Students will learn the basics of capturing documentary footage and sounds in real world scenarios. Learn to navigate the ethics and complexities of capturing “reality” and depicting real people and representing “truth”.

Students will learn how to edit for the desired final product, be it a film or alternative medium such as interactive, web, installation, location intervention and more.

From Robert Flaherty (Silent Era) to John Grierson (British Model) to Morin & Rouch (Cinema Verite) to George Stoney (Community Engagement) to Errol Morris (Epistomological Interview) to Adam Curtis (Journalistic Essay), learn the history and context of documentary and the various ways people have attempted to represent the real world, including newer hybrid forms that mix fiction and non-fiction and non-linear interactive works.

Students will produce a documentary short on the subject and in the medium of their choice.

Seminar connecting the arts and sciences by exploring methodological similarities and differences across disciplines: arts/architecture, humanities/social sciences, engineering, natural and material sciences et al. Aimed at fostering student collaborations across research interests: students develop their ideas for projects through targeted analysis of their disciplinary and interdisciplinary  interests. Each student will either enter with a project in mind, or develop their project ideas within the class. Students can choose to work individually or in groups.

This seminar’s goal to provide blueprints for developing interdisciplinary projects: final is a paper/ plan with goals/outcomes forming the basis for collaborative interdisciplinary projects.  Examples of such projects: artwork that makes use of cross-species communication, (Tomás Saraceno); project engaging the natural sciences, composed of material that endlessly transform, simultaneously functioning as an artwork, (Neri Oxman).

First half semester is targeted reading (articles) across disciplines – based in student interests – alongside discussion of case studies of successful collaborations in these disciplines. Analyzing case studies plus reading will enable an understanding of methodological specificities in different disciplines in relation to aesthetics and fabrication issues, and directly in context of the particular disciplines under consideration. Together this fosters reciprocal knowledge of the strengths and differences across disciplines. Case studies drawn from MIT’s history: CAST and CAVS, and from across the global ‘artworld’. Second half semester will be geared toward aiding students in better connecting across disciplines at MIT (and possibly beyond). This is trial and error, of course. However, final project, as a working plan for interdisciplinary collaboration, will provide the knowledge base and research skills applicable to future projects.

While design is frequently deployed as a problem-solving instrument, it can unintentionally result in ethical dilemmas and unanticipated outcomes. This course uniquely combines the critical lens of art with the innovation framework of DesignX, promoting introspection and thoughtful deliberation before diving into design interventions. This transdisciplinary class initiates a collaboration between ACT and the Morningside Academy of Design through DesignX. Students design and present visual representations on the social impact area they choose to innovate and explore on. Undergraduates are welcome.

Seminar connecting the arts and sciences by exploring methodological similarities and differences across disciplines: arts/architecture, humanities/social sciences, engineering, natural and material sciences et al. Aimed at fostering student collaborations across research interests: students develop their ideas for projects through targeted analysis of their disciplinary and interdisciplinary  interests. Each student will either enter with a project in mind, or develop their project ideas within the class. Students can choose to work individually or in groups.

This seminar’s goal to provide blueprints for developing interdisciplinary projects: final is a paper/ plan with goals/outcomes forming the basis for collaborative interdisciplinary projects.  Examples of such projects: artwork that makes use of cross-species communication, (Tomás Saraceno); project engaging the natural sciences, composed of material that endlessly transform, simultaneously functioning as an artwork, (Neri Oxman).

First half semester is targeted reading (articles) across disciplines – based in student interests – alongside discussion of case studies of successful collaborations in these disciplines. Analyzing case studies plus reading will enable an understanding of methodological specificities in different disciplines in relation to aesthetics and fabrication issues, and directly in context of the particular disciplines under consideration. Together this fosters reciprocal knowledge of the strengths and differences across disciplines. Case studies drawn from MIT’s history: CAST and CAVS, and from across the global ‘artworld’. Second half semester will be geared toward aiding students in better connecting across disciplines at MIT (and possibly beyond). This is trial and error, of course. However, final project, as a working plan for interdisciplinary collaboration, will provide the knowledge base and research skills applicable to future projects.
 

2/8/23 note: Room changed to E15-207

Textile manufacturing is among the most lucrative and largest polluting industries today: more than 80 billion square meters of leftover garments end up in landfills or get destroyed by burning. When the expected demand is not met, supply chains channel stock to the parallel economy of stock destruction ensuring price control. Critiquing this widespread phenomenon of fast fashion, this course takes the notion of “toxic textiles” both as a medium and as a framework to explore the cultural, social, political, economic, and environmental footprint of clothing through the textile medium as a artistic and critical response to the world’s pressing concerns. The course introduces hands-on experimentation with textile art and fashion design informed by case studies in contemporary art, decolonizing fashion, performative and wearable technologies, experimental preservation, and fabric upcycling. 

Research assignments and material experimentation in the first part of the semester build on Donna Haraway’s method of “Implosion” geared toward concept development and skill building. The course will introduce working with a variety of materials and techniques, with an emphasis on reverse applique technique and fabric manipulation. Lectures, readings, screenings, and crits supplement studio practice. At the end of the semester, students will be expected to exhibit one studio-based final project informed by thematic readings and class discussions. 

Students from all disciplines are encouraged and welcome to enroll. The enrollment is limited to 20 students. Sewing skills are beneficial but not pre-required for the class; sewing tutorials, machines, and basic sewing equipment and textiles will be provided.

4.s32 Syllabus (MIT Certificate protected)

2/8/23 note: Room changed to E15-283A

Investigates the political economy of attention from a contemporary media studies perspective. Offers instructions in theories of mass media and commodification, the history of capitalism, and key theoretical debates pertaining to the mediation of attention as a cultural form. Emphasis on critical practices of reading, viewing, and listening that resist dominant configurations of attention in the capitalist sensorium. Seminar format with time for student presentation, guest lecture, visiting artist presentation, and class field trips. Readings will be drawn from a range of fields including political philosophy, film and media theory, art history, technology studies, and communication theory. The course is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Students may elect to fulfill final assignment as either creative project or research-based seminar paper. Additional work required of students taking graduate version.

4.s33 Syllabus (MIT Certificate protected)

Undergraduate: 4.s37 | Graduate: 4.s33

This hands-on studio class will expose students to the technical skills needed for successful screen printing. Students will produce single and multicolor prints on paper and fabric using a variety of methods.

This course investigates the interdisciplinary and generative possibilities of publication, emphasizing its role as a practice of expanding public engagement and imagination. Throughout the semester, students will explore worldmaking strategies, speculative fiction and an array of publication methods ranging from traditional techniques—leveraging ACT and MIT’s extensive resources such as riso printing, book binding and maker labs—to experimental approaches in digital media, performance, political systems, architecture, contemporary art, design and AI.Specific expectations and/or deliverable product resulting from course.

Annexation, greenwashing, and destructive notions of progress have all but wiped out the memory of an indigenous mythology once deeply rooted in an embodied, balanced stewardship of nature. How can the merging of artistic methodologies with agricultural practices address this loss of cultural capital?

Common Ground is a transdisciplinary experiment in learning from the land, seeking to develop a new field of inquiry at the intersection of art, science and agriculture. The history of art is also a history of agriculture, marking humanity’s complex relationship with the environment. This course will examine historic typologies of indigenous architectural and agrarian technologies, bringing them into conversation with contemporary techno-scientific and artistic discourses. Through this synthesis, our class will explore artistic methods to decolonize the social, political, economic and narrative structures that govern our relationship to nature. Following the semester, project documentation and research developed over the semester will contribute to a publication.

Applicants from across artistic and scientific disciplines are highly encouraged. Interested students should attend the first class.

Undergraduates are welcome to enroll.

4.s34 Syllabus (MIT Certificate protected)

Annexation, greenwashing, and destructive notions of progress have all but wiped out the memory of an indigenous mythology once deeply rooted in an embodied, balanced stewardship of nature. How can the merging of artistic methodologies with agricultural practices address this loss of cultural capital?

Common Ground is a transdisciplinary experiment in learning from the land, seeking to develop a new field of inquiry at the intersection of art, science and agriculture. The history of art is also a history of agriculture, marking humanity’s complex relationship with the environment. This course will examine historic typologies of indigenous architectural and agrarian technologies, bringing them into conversation with contemporary techno-scientific and artistic discourses. Through this synthesis, our class will explore artistic methods to decolonize the social, political, economic and narrative structures that govern our relationship to nature. Following the semester, project documentation and research developed over the semester will contribute to a publication.

Applicants from across artistic and scientific disciplines are highly encouraged. Interested students should attend the first class. Undergraduates are welcome to enroll.

Undergraduates are welcome to enroll.

This class is a pre-approved ACT elective for Spring 2023.

Annexation, greenwashing, and destructive notions of progress have all but wiped out the memory of an indigenous mythology once deeply rooted in an embodied, balanced stewardship of nature. How can the merging of artistic methodologies with agricultural practices address this loss of cultural capital?

Common Ground is a transdisciplinary experiment in learning from the land, seeking to develop a new field of inquiry at the intersection of art, science and agriculture. The history of art is also a history of agriculture, marking humanity’s complex relationship with the environment. This course will examine historic typologies of indigenous architectural and agrarian technologies, bringing them into conversation with contemporary techno-scientific and artistic discourses. Through this synthesis, our class will explore artistic methods to decolonize the social, political, economic and narrative structures that govern our relationship to nature. Following the semester, project documentation and research developed over the semester will contribute to a publication.

Applicants from across artistic and scientific disciplines are highly encouraged. Interested students should attend the first class.

While design is frequently deployed as a problem-solving instrument, it can unintentionally result in ethical dilemmas and unanticipated outcomes. This course uniquely combines the critical lens of art with the transdisciplinary framework of DesignX, promoting introspection and thoughtful deliberation before diving into design solutions. This class initiates a collaboration between ACT and the Morningside Academy of Design through DesignX. Students engage with a transdisciplinary ensemble of influential speakers. The lecture series also allow students to innovate and explore a social impact design. Undergraduates are welcome. 

4.s36 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Protected)

Undergraduate: 4.s37 | Graduate: 4.s33

This hands-on studio class will expose students to the technical skills needed for successful screen printing. Students will produce single and multicolor prints on paper and fabric using a variety of methods.

4.s33 + 4.s37 Syllabus (MIT Certificate Protected)

In this seminar, you will learn how to learn about and design a HVAC system that complements the environmental concept of a medium sized commercial or multi-unit residential building. You will learn the pros and cons of different HVAC systems  in terms of their spatial requirements, costs and operational energy use. This class is particularly geared towards students who have previously taken 4.401/4.464 since we assume basic knowledge of building energy modeling techniques. Our goal is to give participants the skills to advocate for their design ideas when in practice to empower architects and building designers to have a greater understanding of HVAC systems with the aim of improving the integrated design process.

Knowledge of Rhino and Grasshopper is required. We will be using the ClimateStudio simulation environment long with custom spreadsheets and grasshopper definitions. You are strongly encourage to bring your own design and further develop it during the seminar. The final outcome of the class will be a presentation of the environmental concept of your design and if accompanying HVAC system. He material will lend itself for inclusion in a design portfolio.

Undergraduates with appropriate experience welcome.

Last summer, not a week passed without reminding us that climate change is increasingly impacting the life and livelihood of millions of people worldwide, be it through flooding, forest fires, heat waves or droughts.

These catastrophic events often destroy already fragile ecosystems and trigger heartbreaking human migration. To limit further tragedy, there is a growing consensus that we need to transition towards a carbon neutral global economy by 2050. This means that the use of all fossil fuels – with exception of some very limited carbon capture offsets – must be ended. For MIT this means, that we must eliminate all greenhouse gases from operating out campus buildings and vehicles.

To address this titanic challenge, MIT has initiated a series of interconnected activities including plans to decisively reduce energy demand from our buildings and reimaging our on and off campus energy supply infrastructure. While MIT hired a consultant to study the technical and economic feasibility of a number of decarbonization pathways a Decarbonization Working Group made of students, faculty and staff with expertise in different low- and zero-carbon technology areas and related topics will also to evaluate and prioritize potential applications to campus.

This class will function as an extension of the activities of this working group.

In the context of the climate crisis and rising temperatures, building enclosure technologies must respond to a plurality of requirements--including solar radiation control, thermal insulation, and heat storage--ideally, with minimal embodied carbon and at low cost.  While contemporary normative approaches tackle this with assemblies of highly specialized layers, alternative solutions are emerging that use geometric specificity and variation to integrate multiple high-performance behaviors in a humble and simplified material palette.  Shape-forward wall systems are well situated to leverage advances in digital fabrication, such as additive manufacturing of low-carbon materials like minimally processed earth, but can also be materialized with a range of traditional and emerging assembly and fabrication methods.

In this seminar, students will first study historical and contemporary precedents of relevant multi-functional wall and enclosure systems.  They will then learn to use state-of-the-art digital tools for designing, modeling, simulating, and optimizing these types of wall systems, accounting for the described thermal requirements along with embodied carbon and structural behavior.  The seminar will also include hands-on physical prototyping and experimental tests.  The final project will be an evidence-based design proposal, supported by digital simulations and physical experiments, for novel thermally performative enclosure systems and their potential impact on architectural expression.

Note: This course was held in June 2022

Rebuilding the Edge is a summer workshop offered by the MIT Department of Architecture for MIT students that will be taking place during the month of June 2022 in the Italian region of Abruzzo. Through an on-site experience, the workshop invites students to think about the future of Italian inner and southern areas, as well as the relationship between regional infrastructure projects and small communities affected by them.

Rebuilding the Edge is the result of a partnership between Liminal A.P.S., MIT’s Urban Risk Lab, MISTI Italy and Fondazione Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane–the foundation of the Italian state railway system. The workshop focuses on the issues faced by small municipalities along the Sulmona–Carpinone rail line, where a public-private partnership is beginning to revive rail activity after decades of disinvestment. For two-and-a-half weeks, students have the opportunity to experience the territory traversed by the rail line, working out of a popup research outpost within the recently renovated station at Roccaraso.

Rebuilding the Edge will allow students to engage the particular circumstances along one rail line in the Italian Apennines, and take away larger lessons about methodologies of design research, and the degrees to which design can play a role in addressing issues of social consequence.

During this workshop participants will learn about the design, engineering, and fabrication of rope structures in the work of MIT Distinguished Visiting Artist, Janet Echelman. They will then explore the design and fabrication of tensioned networks through physical modeling and computational tools. First they will individually explore small scale structures and then they will collaboratively produce an architectural scale rope structure.

Midway through the week there will be a session teaching the basics of rope splicing led by structural engineer, Nicole Wang, who has deep expertise in the engineering of Janet Echelman’s sculptures. This session will provide a foundation for the final stage of the workshop where a room scale structure will be collaboratively fabricated using spliced connections.
Participants will need a laptop and Rhino 7 installed on their computer prior to the workshop to work with the design tool.

Space and materials are limited so registration is required. Please contact aburke3@mit.edu if you have any questions.