Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Latest Articles

Loud and clear

The 2008 Foster Prize at the ICA, Adel Abdessemed at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center
Although it's no stretch to say that contemporary artists are eager to say something, the art world has seen its fair share of awkwardly shitty gallery talks.
By EVAN J. GARZA | November 26, 2008

Threshold of revelation

Einstein dreams in Central Square; Skylight is illumined in Lowell
Einstein dreams in Central Square; Skylight is illumined in Lowell
By CAROLYN CLAY | November 26, 2008

Gongs with robot

Gamelan Galak Tika does crossover
The Balinese gamelan, a close-knit ensemble of percussion, flute, and voices, preserves some of the oldest music in the world as an essential part of ritual and secular occasions.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | November 25, 2008

The PTech connection?

Between late 2002 and early 2003, the now defunct Fleet Bank in Boston attracted the attention of federal anti-terrorist investigators.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 24, 2008

Vertical energy

Irina Muresanu gave an emotionally compelling performance, even if her view of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto didn’t always jibe with conductor Jonathan McPhee’s.
The word “concerto” comes from the Italian for “to bring into agreement,” and it’s not always as easy as soloists and symphony orchestras make it seem.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 14, 2008

Mixed Magic’s Moby Dick goes to DC

Whale tale
In 2006, Pitts-Wiley wrote Moby Dick: Then and Now , a theatrical version of Herman Melville’s book, which joined the story of Captain Ahab chasing a great white whale to an urban tale of teenagers chasing “that Great White Thing” — cocaine.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 05, 2008

Hop to it

Where to do the Lindy

By CHRIS FARAONE AND SARA FAITH ALTERMAN | November 05, 2008

Racial healing

Former mayoral opponents Ray Flynn and Mel King discuss how far their city’s come, and how far it hasn’t, since 1983
To be sure, racism still exists. But the distance our culture has come in 50 years — from blacks fighting for basic civil rights to a black man running for the White House — is remarkable.
By ADAM REILLY | November 10, 2008

Forever young

At 67, Joan Baez is more diamonds than rust
When I first get Joan Baez on the phone, my burning question is what she thinks of the upcoming presidential election.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | October 27, 2008

Scientific slowdown

Warp-speed photography
In the industrial heart of South Boston, behind an unassuming door labeled “Time Warp,” a man slices eggs, tomatoes, and tatami mats at high speed with a samurai sword on a recent Saturday afternoon.
By CASSANDRA LANDRY | October 22, 2008

Biz-school widows lament

It’s hard to become a full member of the club when you’re an academic ‘other’
Some, these days, would have harsh words for the culture of business schools, as if, perhaps, B-school grads were just a teensy bit responsible for, like, the collapse of the whole fucking world.
By SARA FAITH ALTERMAN AND KARA BASKIN | October 31, 2008

Old trickster

At age 78, able-bodied Alan Abel’s life is still one big joke
On New Year’s Day 1980, telegrams sent from Utah arrived at the New York Times and the Daily News announcing that 50-year-old media hoaxter Alan Abel had suffered a heart attack at a ski resort near Orem, Utah. He left behind a wife, Jeanne, and daughter, Jennifer.
By IAN SANDS | October 09, 2008

Opening pitch

James Levine’s gala and Brahms, Russell Sherman’s Liszt, the Bostonians’ Kurt Weill
The most moving moment of this year’s Boston Symphony Orchestra opening gala came before the concert started — the standing ovation for James Levine, who looked rested and recuperated after his kidney surgery this summer, an operation that forced him to cancel most of his Tanglewood season.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 01, 2008

Man and machine

John Maeda talks about technology — and his quest to understand RISD
Leave it to John Maeda, the Rhode Island School of Design’s new president, to invoke the long-term value of art at a time when global financial markets are gripped by uncertainty.
By IAN DONNIS | September 24, 2008

Are universities selling out to oil nations?

As big bucks beckon, Gulf campuses of American universities are booming
As Academia searches for elusive dollars in a downward economy, oil-rich nations are enticing American schools to open satellite campuses in the Gulf.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | September 25, 2008

New blood

ART and the Huntington (and Boston theater) get a youth transfusion
The famously adventurous American Repertory Theatre is soon to be taken over by a woman who spent her summer directing . . . the vintage Broadway hits Kiss Me, Kate and Hair ?
By CAROLYN CLAY | September 10, 2008