The MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) has its origins in the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT), an arts and research center founded in 1967 by artist and teacher

György Kepes György Kepes �ɟøɾɟ ˈkɛpɛʃ(October 4, 1906 – December 29, 2001) was a Hungarian-born painter, photographer, designer, educator, and art theorist. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1937, he taught design at the New Bauhaus (later the S ...

. In 2009, CAVS merged with the MIT Visual Arts Program, to become the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT). The Program is part of the

MIT School of Architecture and Planning The MIT School of Architecture and Planning (MIT SAP, stylized as SA+P) is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1865 by William Robert Ware, the school offered the f ...

History

György Kepes, who taught at the

New Bauhaus Institute of Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), founded as the New Bauhaus, is a graduate school teaching systemic, human-centered design. History The Institute of Design at Illinois Tech is a school of design ...

(now the

IIT Institute of Design Institute of Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), founded as the New Bauhaus, is a graduate school teaching systemic, human-centered design. History The Institute of Design at Illinois Tech is a school of design ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

), founded the Center at MIT as a way to encourage artistic collaboration on a large civic scale. During its 45-year existence, the CAVS hosted more than 200 artists and fellows that "pioneered collaborative works in light, kinetic, environmental and inflatable sculpture, laser, steam, video, electronic music, holography, dance, computer graphics and animation, among other media". In 1974, Otto Piene succeeded Kepes as the director of the CAVS. Piene retired in 1994 and the CAVS was taken over by

Krzysztof Wodiczko Krzysztof Wodiczko (born April 16, 1943) is a Polish artist known for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He has realized more than 80 such public projections in Australia, Austria, Canada, England ...

, who, after a hiatus, continued as director. In 2004, Wodiczko brought on board a new staff including Associate Director Larissa Harris, Meg Rotzel, and Joe Zane. The CAVS began a revitalization program which included numerous site visits by international artists, long-term residencies, and the commissioning of new artistic projects. Some of the later visitors included Marjetica Potrč,

Miranda July Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, singer, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art. She w ...

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an influential American performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His foundational p ...

Simon Starling Simon Starling (born 1967) is an English conceptual artist and won the Turner Prize in 2005. Early life Simon Starling was born in 1967 in Epsom, Surrey. He studied photography and art at Maidstone College of Art from 1986 to 1987, then at Tre ...

Harrell Fletcher Harrell Fletcher (born 1967 in Santa Maria, California) is an American social practice and relational aesthetics artist and professor, living in Portland, Oregon. Biography Harrell Fletcher was born in 1967 in Santa Maria, California and att ...

, John Malpede, David Robbins,

Fritz Haeg Fritz Haeg (born 1969) is an American artist whose work spans a range of disciplines and media including gardens, dance, performance, design, installation, ecology and architecture, most of which is commissioned and presented by art museums and i ...

, and

Mel Chin Mel Chin (born 1951 in Houston, Texas, USA) is a conceptual visual artist. Motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances, Chin works in a variety of art media to calculate meaning in modern life. Chin places art in landscapes, ...

. The CAVS was originally located at 40 Massachusetts Avenue (MIT Building W11) near the center of the

MIT campus The Massachusetts Institute of Technology occupies a tract in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The campus spans approximately one mile (1.6 km) of the north side of the Charles River basin directly opposite the Back Bay neigh ...

, in space vacated by the relocation of the MIT branch of the

Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society The Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society (or The Coop, pronounced as a single syllable) is a Cambridge, Massachusetts retail cooperative for the Harvard University and MIT campuses. The general public is encouraged to freely enter and make purchases ...

to the new Stratton Student Center. This CAVS space was later reassigned to on-campus religious counseling groups, and the CAVS was moved to 265 Massachusetts Avenue (MIT Building N52), north of the main campus. In 2009, the CAVS merged with the MIT Visual Arts Program (VAP), to become the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), and moved into a new annex to the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

building, at 75 Amherst Street (MIT Building E14). Archives, artworks, and artifacts from the history of the CAVS are preserved in the Center for Advanced Visual Studies Special Collection (CAVSSC). , the collection is being cataloged; items are available to researchers, either remotely or in person, with advance notice.

Fellows

Some of the Center's early fellows included artists Otto Piene,

Vassilakis Takis Vassilakis ( gr, Βασιλάκης) is a Greek surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adamantios Vassilakis (1942–2021), Greek diplomat * Christian Vassilakis (born 2001), Spanish footballer *Panayiotis Vassilakis Panayiotis Vas ...

Jack Burnham Jack Wesley Burnham Jr. (born New York City, November 13, 1931 - February 25, 2019) was an American writer and theorist of art and technology, who taught art history at Northwestern University and the University of Maryland. He is one of the mai ...

Wen-Ying Tsai Wen-Ying Tsai (; October 13, 1928 – January 2, 2013) was a Chinese-American pioneer cybernetic sculptor and kinetic artist best known for creating sculptures using electric motors, stainless steel rods, stroboscopic light, and audio feedb ...

, Stan Vanderbeek,

Maryanne Amacher Maryanne Amacher (February 25, 1938 – October 22, 2009) was an American composer and installation artist. She is known for working extensively with a family of psychoacoustic phenomena called auditory distortion products (also known as dis ...

Joan Brigham Joan may refer to: People and fictional characters * Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters *:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine *Joan (surname) Weather events *Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multipl ...

Lowry Burgess Lowry Burgess (1940 – January 28, 2020) was a conceptual and environmental artist and educator and was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a Distinguished Fellow in the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. He also served on the Ad ...

Peter Campus Peter Campus (born 1937 in New York, NY), often styled as peter campus, is an American artist and a pioneer of new media and video art, known for his interactive video installations, single-channel video works, and photography. His work is held ...

Muriel Cooper Muriel Cooper (1925 – May 26, 1994) was a pioneering book designer, digital designer, researcher, and educator. She was the first design director of the MIT Press, instilling a Bauhaus-influenced design style into its many publications. She move ...

, Douglas Davis, Susan Gamble, Dieter Jung, Piotr Kowalski,

Charlotte Moorman Madeline Charlotte Moorman (November 18, 1933 – November 8, 1991) was an American cellist, performance artist, and advocate for avant-garde music. Referred to as the "Jeanne d'Arc of new music", she was the founder of the Annual Avant Garde Fes ...

, Antoni Muntadas,

Yvonne Rainer Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental.

, Keiko Prince,

Alan Sonfist Alan Sonfist is a New York City based American artist best known as a "pioneer" and a "trailblazer" of the Land or Earth Art movement. He first gained prominence for his " Time Landscape" found on the corner of West Houston Street and LaGuardia ...

Aldo Tambellini Aldo Tambellini (29 April 1930 – 12 November 2020) was an Italian-American artist. He pioneered electronic intermedia, and was a painter, sculptor, and poet. He died at age 90, in November 2020. Childhood Aldo Tambellini was born in Syracu ...

Joe Davis Joseph Davis (15 April 190110 July 1978) was an English professional snooker and English billiards player. He was the dominant figure in snooker from the 1920s to the 1950s, and has been credited with inventing aspects of the way the game is ...

Bill Seaman Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

Tamiko Thiel Tamiko Thiel (born June 15, 1957) is an American artist, known for her digital art. Her work often explores "the interplay of place, space, the body and cultural identity," and uses augmented reality (AR) as her platform. Thiel is based in Munich ...

, Alejandro Sina, Don Ritter, Luc Courchesne, and Bill Parker.

References

External links

Archived home page

ACT Home page

CAVS Special Collection
{{Authority control Massachusetts Institute of Technology