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53-521: The media lab was founded in 1985 by Nicholas Negroponte and former MIT President Jerome Wiesner , and is housed in the Wiesner Building (designed by I. M. Pei ), also known as Building E15. The lab has been written about in the popular press since 1988, when Stewart Brand published The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T. , and its work was a regular feature of technology journals in

106-415: A $ 100 laptop computer. A non-profit organization, One Laptop per Child , was created to oversee the actual deployment, MIT did not manufacture or distribute the device. The Synthetic Neurobiology group created reagents and devices for the analysis of brain circuits are in use by hundreds of biology labs around the world. In 2011, Ramesh Raskar 's group published their femto-photography technique, that

159-422: A close relationship with the media lab. Most media lab faculty are professors of media arts and sciences. Students who earn a degree in media arts and sciences have been predominantly in residence at the media lab, taking classes and doing research. Some students from other programs at MIT, such as mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering and computer science, do their research at the media lab, working with

212-735: A dozen named professorships. A full list of media lab faculty and academic research staff, with bios and other information, is available via the media lab website. As of August 2019, Alex Pentland is professor of media arts and sciences, Toshiba Professor and Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program Director. In August 2019, director Joi Ito said that the organization had received funding from multimillionaire convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein through foundations Epstein controlled; that Ito had visited several of Epstein's residences; and that Epstein had invested "in several of my funds which invest in tech startup companies outside of MIT". Ito later admitted to taking $ 525,000 in funding from Epstein for

265-494: A master's degree in architecture from MIT in 1966. Despite his accomplished academic career, Negroponte has spoken publicly about his dyslexia and his difficulty in reading. Negroponte later joined the faculty of MIT in 1966. For several years thereafter he divided his teaching time between MIT and several visiting professorships at Yale , Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley . He also during 1966, had

318-494: A media lab research fellow from Germany whom Epstein introduced to Ito in 2013. Bach declined to be interviewed for Goodwin Procter's fact-finding. Epstein's other donations to the media lab between 2015 and 2017, totaling $ 350,000, were made to support Professor Seth Lloyd (Professor of Mechanical Engineering, $ 225,000), and Professor Neri Oxman (associate professor of media arts and sciences, $ 125,000). Shortly after signing

371-866: A media lab/Media Arts and Sciences faculty advisor, but earn their degrees (such as MEng or an MS in EECS) from other departments. Over 1,000 students apply to the MAS program and the admission is less than 5% per year. In addition to the media lab, the combined original Wiesner building (E15) and new (E14) buildings also host the List Visual Arts Center , the School of Architecture and Planning 's Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), and MIT's Program in Comparative Media Studies. In 2009,

424-436: A monthly column to the magazine in which he reiterated a basic theme: "Move bits, not atoms." Negroponte expanded many of the ideas from his Wired columns into a bestselling book Being Digital (1995), which made famous his forecasts on how the interactive world, the entertainment world and the information world would eventually merge. Being Digital was a bestseller and was translated into some forty languages. Negroponte

477-406: A petition in support of Ito, attorney and political activist Lawrence Lessig argued that the undesirable nature of donations to academic institutions from criminals like Epstein, whose fortune does not derive from their crimes, is partially mitigated if the donations are anonymous. He argues that it was "a mistake to take this money, even if anonymous," but that "if you take them, at least don't give

530-459: A role with IBM which could potentially provide funding for research to find means of using computers to help architects , planners and designers . He attended Avery Johnson's lab and seminars at the MIT Sloan school . He eventually met Warren Brodey, who Negroponte described as being “one of the earliest and most important influences”. According to Evgeny Morozov , it was through Brodey that

583-633: A sex offense, Epstein made a $ 100,000 donation to MIT through a charitable foundation to support the research of Professor Marvin Minsky (former Toshiba Professor of media arts and sciences, media lab). Epstein's $ 100,000 donation in May 2013 was intended to be used at Joi Ito's discretion. His donations in November 2013 and in July and September 2014, totaling $ 300,000, were made to support research by Joscha Bach ,

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636-571: A space which has now become the Elizabeth Parks Killian Hall, a 140-seat performance space used primarily for solo and chamber music recitals, lectures, and theater readings. An early 1950-1951 exhibition showed mobiles, stabiles, and other artworks by Alexander Calder , in the "New Gallery, Charles Hayden Memorial Library". By 1970, the Hayden Gallery was exhibiting several contemporary art shows annually, such as

689-496: Is a Greek American architect. He is the founder and chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's Media Lab , and also founded the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC). Negroponte is the author of the 1995 book Being Digital translated into more than forty languages. Negroponte was born to Dimitrios Negropontis ( Greek : Νεγροπόντης ), a Greek shipping magnate, competitive alpine skier and member of

742-499: Is a block-based programming language and community developed for children 8–16, and used by people of all ages to learn programming. Millions of people have created Scratch projects in a wide variety of settings, including homes, schools, museums, libraries, and community centers. In January 2005, the lab's chairman emeritus Nicholas Negroponte announced at the World Economic Forum a new research initiative to develop

795-549: Is a digital optimist who believed that computers would make life better for everyone. However, critics such as Cass Sunstein have criticised his techno-utopian ideas for failing to consider the historical, political and cultural realities with which new technologies should be viewed. In the 1980s Negroponte predicted that wired technologies such as telephones would become unwired by using airwaves instead of wires or fiber optics, and that unwired technologies such as televisions would become wired—a prediction commonly referred to as

848-721: Is able to image the movement of individual light pulses. In 2013, the Media Lab launched E14 Fund as a program to support and invest in MIT Media Lab startups. In 2017, E14 Fund launched its first seed stage venture fund to invest in the MIT Media Lab startup community. It invested in companies like Formlabs , Affectiva , Tulip, Wise Systems, Figur8 and more. Media Lab industry spin-offs include: 42°21′38″N 71°05′15″W  /  42.36045°N 71.08737°W  / 42.36045; -71.08737 Nicholas Negroponte Nicholas Negroponte (born December 1, 1943)

901-451: Is an angel investor and has invested in over 30 startup companies over the last 30 years, including Zagats , Wired , Ambient Devices , Skype and Velti . He has sat on several boards, including Motorola and Velti . He is also on the advisory board of TTI/Vanguard . In August 2007, he was appointed to a five-member special committee with the objective of assuring the continued journalistic and editorial integrity and independence of

954-583: Is housed in the Wiesner Building , an I.M. Pei -designed, fully accessible facility that incorporates the work of painter Kenneth Noland , sculptor Scott Burton , and environmental sculptor Richard Fleischner , all commissioned through MIT's Percent-for-Art program. The Percent-for-Art program, administered by the LVAC, allocates funds for the commission of artworks in connection with each new campus construction or major renovation project. Past commissions include Louise Nevelson 's Transparent Horizon in front of

1007-958: Is made to MIT and media lab sponsors. The media lab generates approximately 20 new patents every year. Some recurring themes of work at the media lab include human adaptability, human computer interaction , education and communication, artistic creation and visualization, and designing technology for the developing world. Other research focus includes machines with common sense, sociable robots, prosthetics, sensor networks, musical devices, city design, and public health. Research programs all include iterative development of prototypes which are tested and displayed for visitors. Each of these areas of research may incorporate others. Interaction design research includes designing intelligent objects and environments. Educational research has also included integrating more computation into learning activities - including software for learning, programmable toys, and artistic or musical instruments. Examples include Lego Mindstorms ,

1060-987: The Lego Mindstorms , LEGO WeDo and the pointing stick in IBM laptop keyboards , the Benton hologram used in most credit cards, the Fisher-Price's Symphony Painter, the Nortel Wireless Mesh Network, the NTT Comware Sensetable, the Taito's Karaoke-on-Demand Machine. A 1994 device called the Sensor Chair used to control a musical orchestra was adapted by several car manufacturers into capacitive sensors to prevent dangerous airbag deployments. The MPEG-4 SA project developed at

1113-546: The Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Dava Newman took the position in July, 2021, the first woman to do so. As of 2014, the media lab had roughly 70 administrative and support staff members. Associate directors of the lab were Hiroshi Ishii and Andrew Lippman . Pattie Maes and Mitchel Resnick were co-heads of the program in media arts and sciences, and the lab's chief knowledge officer was Henry Holtzman. The media lab has at times had regional branches in other parts of

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1166-597: The MIT Media Lab building, as well as its administration of the permanent art collection distributed throughout the university campus, faculty offices, and student housing. The original art exhibition space was established in 1950 and was soon called the MIT Hayden Gallery , after its location next to the entrance of the Hayden Library for Humanities and Sciences (MIT Building 14). It occupied

1219-558: The MIT Media Lab with Jerome B. Wiesner . As director, he developed the lab into a laboratory for new media and a high-tech playground for investigating the human–computer interface. Negroponte also became a proponent of intelligent agents and personalized electronic newspapers , for which he popularized the term the Daily Me . In 1992, Negroponte was the first investor in Wired Magazine . From 1993 to 1998, he contributed

1272-500: The NIH , NSF , and DARPA . Also, consortia with other schools or other departments at MIT are often able to have money that does not enter into the common pool. MIT Media Lab has an approximately $ 75 million annual operating budget. Companies sponsoring the lab can share in the lab's intellectual property without paying license fees or royalties. Non-sponsors cannot make use of media lab developments for two years after technical disclosure

1325-1266: The Negroponte family. He grew up in New York City's Upper East Side . He has three brothers. His elder one, John Negroponte , is the former United States Deputy Secretary of State . Michel Negroponte is an Emmy Award -winning filmmaker. George Negroponte is an artist and was President of the Drawing Center from 2002 to 2007. He attended Buckley School in New York, Fay School in Massachusetts, Le Rosey in Switzerland, and The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut , from which he graduated in 1961. Subsequently, he studied at MIT as both an undergraduate and graduate student in Architecture where his research focused on issues of computer-aided design . Yona Friedman recalls having met Negroponte in 1964 when he

1378-561: The Negroponte switch . In 2000, Negroponte stepped down as director of the Media Lab as Walter Bender took over as executive director. However, Negroponte retained the role of laboratory chairman. When Frank Moss was appointed director of the lab in 2006, Negroponte stepped down as lab chairman to focus more fully on his work with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) although he retains his appointment as professor at MIT (Professor Post-Tenure of Media Arts and Sciences). In November 2005, at

1431-461: The PicoCricket , and One Laptop per Child . The lab has over twenty research groups. The media arts and sciences program is a part of MIT's school of architecture and planning, and includes three levels of study: a doctoral program, a master's of science program, and a program that offers an alternative to the standard MIT freshman year as well as a set of undergraduate subjects that may form

1484-600: The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones & Company publications and services. The committee was formed as part of the merger of Dow Jones with News Corporation . Negroponte's fellow founding committee members are Louis Boccardi , Thomas Bray , Jack Fuller , and the late former Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn . In response to the controversy of the MIT Media Lab accepting funding from Jeffrey Epstein five years after Epstein's conviction for sex trafficking minors, Negroponte told MIT staff, "If you wind back

1537-631: The World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis , Negroponte unveiled the concept of a $ 100 laptop computer, The Children's Machine , designed for students in the developing world. The price has increased to US$ 180, however. The project was a part of a broader program by One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit organization started by Negroponte and other Media Lab faculty to extend Internet access in developing countries. Negroponte

1590-618: The "extremely serious" allegations. On January 10, 2020, the executive committee of the MIT Corporation, the institute's governing board, released the results of Goodwin Procter 's fact-finding regarding interactions between Jeffrey Epstein and the Institute. The report revealed that Epstein made 10 donations through various entities to MIT totaling $ 850,000, including nine donations, totaling $ 750,000, made after his 2008 conviction. In 2002, four years before Epstein's first arrest for

1643-424: The 1990s. In 2009, it expanded into a second building. The media lab came under scrutiny in 2019 due to its acceptance of donations from convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . This led to the resignation of its director, Joi Ito , and the launch of an "immediate, thorough and independent" investigation into the "extremely serious" and "deeply disturbing allegations about the engagement between individuals at

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1696-871: The Landau Building, Sol LeWitt 's polychrome floor in the Green Center for Physics, and Anish Kapoor 's Non-Object (Plane) in the Stata Center . The LVAC maintains a permanent collection, primarily sited throughout campus, of over 3,000 prints, photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptures, textiles, collages, and other objects of contemporary art. The public sculpture collection includes over 50 major works by such artists as Alexander Calder , Jorge Pardo , Henry Moore , Pablo Picasso , Louise Nevelson , Sarah Sze , Dan Graham , Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy , Cai Guo-Qiang , Jaume Plensa , Frank Stella , and Mark DiSuvero . The public art has been called "one of

1749-528: The MIT Media Lab's director of development and strategy at the time, have worked for years to solicit anonymous donations from Epstein despite Epstein being marked as Disqualified by the university as a donor. Ito has referred to Epstein as "fascinating". Ito resigned due to the scandal shortly after the New Yorker article. L. Rafael Reif, the president of MIT, announced an "immediate, thorough and independent" investigation to be led by an outside law firm into

1802-485: The Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein" by L. Rafael Reif , the president of MIT. In December 2020, Dava Newman , professor of aeronautics and astronautics and former deputy administrator of NASA under Obama , was named the new director of the MIT Media Lab. The founding director of the lab was Nicholas Negroponte , who directed it until 2000. Later directors were Walter Bender (2000–2006), Frank Moss (2006–2011), and Joi Ito (2011-2019) who resigned in connection with

1855-716: The Media Lab made structured audio a practical reality and the Aspen Movie Map was the precursor to the ideas in Google Street View . In 2001, two research centers were spun off: Media Lab Asia and Media Lab Europe . Media Lab Asia, based in India , was a result of cooperation with the Government of India but eventually broke off in 2003 after a disagreement. Media Lab Europe, based in Dublin , Ireland ,

1908-579: The advice of the MIT Council for the Arts, and usually consist of artist's limited edition prints or photographs. In addition, the LVAC administers a Campus Loan Art Program, which loans framed and sculptural artwork from its permanent collection for display in administration, faculty, and staff offices. The LVAC has been the commissioning institution for the Venice Biennales three times at

1961-435: The basis for a future joint major. All graduate students are fully supported (tuition plus a stipend) from the outset, normally by appointments as research assistants at the media laboratory, where they work on research programs and faculty projects, including assisting with courses. These research activities typically take up about half of a student's time in the degree program. The media arts and sciences academic program have

2014-627: The best collections of its kind" in a guide to American sculpture parks and gardens. An interactive map of all publicly situated art is available, as well as downloadable audio commentaries and printable brochures covering selected artworks. Detailed architectural coverage of major MIT buildings is also available. The LVAC administers the Student Lending Art Program, consisting of over 700 original works of art in 2-dimensional framed media. Through this popular annual loan program, students may borrow original works of art from

2067-536: The clock, I would still say, 'Take it.'" Negroponte said that in the fund-raising world these types of occurrences were not out of the ordinary, and they should not be reason enough to cut off business relationships. List Visual Arts Center Established in 1950, the List Visual Arts Center ( LVAC ) is the contemporary art museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is known for temporary exhibitions in its galleries located in

2120-505: The collection for their private rooms or communal spaces. Since 1977, the artworks available for loan are exhibited in a comprehensive September show, which may also be viewed by the general public. Each year, approximately 15 new works are added to the collection and displayed in the Student Center for a year, and high-value selected older works are reassigned to the non-circulating permanent collection. New selections are made with

2173-564: The criminal a chance to publicly launder his reputation". "Everyone seems to treat it as if the anonymity and secrecy around Epstein's gift are a measure of some kind of moral failing," Lessig wrote. "I see it as exactly the opposite." The Boston Globe reported it had seen emails indicating Bill Gates had donated $ 2.2 million to the media lab through Epstein. On March 24, 2018, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited MIT and prompted protests. Salman's non-profit foundation MiSK

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2226-518: The groundbreaking Exploration show, organized by the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies under the direction of György Kepes . This popular exhibition included interactive and kinetic light-based artworks by Wen-Ying Tsai , William H Wainwright and Kepes, and Takis . In 1985, the museum was relocated to its current expanded facilities in the new Wiesner Building (E15) housing the MIT Media Lab , designed by I. M. Pei . The relocated museum

2279-509: The ideas of "soft architectures" and "intelligent environments" became established in Negroponte's thinking. In 1967, Negroponte founded MIT 's Architecture Machine Group, a combination lab and think tank which studied new approaches to human–computer interaction . The Architecture Machine Group was primarily concerned in addressing the potential of computers in architecture. Negroponte argued during this period that computer aided design

2332-436: The lab. In 2019, media lab founder Nicholas Negroponte expressed support for Ito's decision to accept the funding from Epstein. Also in 2019, a federal court deposition was unsealed in which Virginia Giuffre stated that Epstein's associate directed her to have sex with former media lab professor Marvin Minsky . In September 2019, it was revealed by emails leaked to Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker that Ito and Peter Cohen,

2385-464: The media lab expanded into a new building designed by Pritzker Prize -winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki . The local architect of record was Leers Weinzapfel Associates, of Boston. The Maki building has predominantly glass walls, with long lines of sight through the building, making ongoing research visible and encouraging connections and collaboration. Media arts and sciences faculty and academic research staff are principal investigators/heads of

2438-413: The media lab's various research groups. They also advise media arts and sciences graduate students and mentor MIT undergraduates. "Most departments accept grad students based on their prospects for academic success; the media lab attempts to select ones that will best be able to help with some of the ongoing projects." As of 2014, there are more than 25 faculty and academic research staff members, including

2491-534: The research from the lab were composed into two books: The Architecture Machine: Towards a More Human Environment (1973), and Soft Architecture Machines (1976). Participants in the group included the cybernetician Gordon Pask , who visited Negroponte as a consultant and whose article "Aspects of Machine Intelligence" became the introduction to the section on machine intelligence in Soft Architecture Machines . In 1985, Negroponte created

2544-446: The world, such as Media Lab Europe and Media Lab Asia, each with their own staff and governing bodies. The lab's primary funding comes from corporate sponsorship . Rather than accepting funding on a per-project or per-group basis, the lab asks sponsors to fund general themes; sponsors can then connect with media lab research. Specific projects and researchers are also funded more traditionally through US government institutions including

2597-403: Was a member company of the lab until 2018. According to The New York Times , a sizable part of the annual budget of the lab comes from corporate patrons, who pay at least $ 250,000 each year. Prince Mohammed's personal foundation was among the roughly 90 members at their time of membership. Books Some media lab-developed technologies made it into products or public software packages, such as

2650-606: Was founded with a similar concept in association with Irish universities and government , and closed in January 2005. Created collaboratively by the Computer Museum and the media lab, the Computer Clubhouse, a worldwide network of after-school learning centers, focuses on youth from underserved communities who would not otherwise have access to technological tools and activities. Launched in 2003, Scratch

2703-403: Was only making activities such as architecture "faster", and that the underlying spirit of the architectural machine group would be to explore the various possibilities for generating collaborating machines for architectural design. The group took funding from DARPA and other parts of The Pentagon to explore early research in human-computer interaction and virtual reality . The contents of

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2756-412: Was renamed the List Visual Arts Center in recognition of a gift by Vera and Albert List . The LVAC is internationally recognized for the 6 to 9 temporary exhibitions it presents each year in its 6,000-square-foot (560 m ) galleries, which are open to the general public. Admission is free to all, as are most events sponsored by the LVAC, including family-friendly hands-on art workshops. The LVAC

2809-532: Was still a student at MIT, where he had discussed with Friedman his idea for an "Architecture Machine". The architecture machine is considered by Negroponte to be a machine collaborator, who engages in an ongoing architectural design process with a human peer. Both machine and human participants engage in a process of mutual training and growth with each other, in order to harness the interactive potential found in peer-to-peer collaborations during an architectural design process with man and machine instead. He earned

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