STS.035 Exhibiting Science

Spring 2015 ~ Mondays and Wednesdays 1:00 – 3:00 pm in 10-150

HASS-A, 2-2-8 units
Prereq: One CI-H/CI-HW subject, permission of instructor
Preference to students who have taken STS.034
Enrollment limited to 20 (enrollment will be by lottery if more than 20 students register)

Instructors:
John Durant, MIT Museum Director & Adjunct Professor, STS Program
Seth Riskin, MIT Museum Studio Manager
Allan Doyle, Chief Technology Officer, MIT Museum

Come make the Creative Leap, by trying your hand(s) at an exhibit for display just off the Infinite Corridor!

Picture of student working on kinetic sculpture involving a bicycle.

This is a small, project-based class where students learn the art and science of effective science communication by developing their own exhibits for public display.

Each year, STS.035 gives students the chance to “connect the dots”: bringing their own love of art, science and technology together with their creative energies to produce exhibits that effectively convey ideas, insights and issues to the wider world.

In spring 2014, STS.035 students developed individual kinetic sculptures, some of which are on display today on the second floor of the MIT. This year, students will take on a very different but equally exciting challenge: The Creative Leap. Students will work together on a new exhibit (or series of exhibits) for display in the cases that run along the corridor that connects the Memorial Lobby (Lobby 10) with the MIT Museum Studio in 10-150, right under the Dome!

The challenge is to create displays involving movement, development, and sequence that effectively express MIT’s distinctive student culture of Mens et Manus (Mind and Hand) to the many thousands of people who pass by these cases every week of the year. Working as a team, students will conceive, research, develop, test, and install their new exhibit in time for Commencement 2015. The theme of the new exhibit is entirely open, but the display site lends itself to a strong visual display using light, imagery, color, and/or movement. All that’s needed is lot of creative imagination (plus a good deal of hard Studio work) to achieve something meaningful and memorable for one the Institute’s most prominent display sites.

The class will combine short seminars, talks by visiting designers and exhibitors, and a great deal of hands-on exhibit development work. Most classes will be taught in the MIT Museum Studio (10-150, just off Lobby 10), where students will be provided with workspace, materials and equipment; but some time may be spent in N51, close by the Museum, where the Edgerton Center runs a larger shop.

Space is limited on this project-based course, which is particularly suited to students with strong backgrounds in communications, mechanical and/or electrical engineering, and the visual arts.

Register for STS.035 Exhibiting Science.