Book launch: "Thresholds 51: Heat"

Edited by Hampton Smith and Zachariah DeGiulio, the 51st edition of Thresholds: Heat includes includes new peer-reviewed essays, short essays, and critical creative works from art, architecture, and related fields that take enthalpy—the thermodynamic property that comprises heat, pressure, and volume to effect change—as its guiding principle. Thresholds is the peer-reviewed journal produced by the MIT Department of Architecture and distributed by the MIT Press.

“Heat is elusive: always on the move, always fugitive. As the transference of energy from one system to another, heat radiates and penetrates. Immanent and intense, heat binds and nourishes as much as it reshapes or destroys. While helping us navigate the material world as tool, medium, and affect, heat forces us to come to terms with the fragility of the systems in which we take part—both voluntarily and involuntarily. And though temperature is regularly mapped across graphs and thermometers, the feeling of heat is often so localized and so personal that it evades historic perception altogether. Even if we know things are hotter now than they were yesterday, where is heat within art and architecture?” 

In celebration of the 51st issue of Thresholds, we hope you will join us on  April 14th, 2023 from 5:30–7:30 at the MIT Museum for a launch party.

This event is supported by the MIT Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, MIT Press Bookstore, MIT Morningside Academy for Design, and the MIT Museum.