The New York Times recently spotlighted MIT Meteorologist Lodovica Illari’s ongoing collaboration with MIT Visiting Artist Tomás Saraceno in an article examining the Institute’s commitment to cross-disciplinary engagement through the Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) .
From the Times:
At MIT, Science Embraces a New Chaos Theory: Art
“CAST, as it's known, has revitalized an MIT model begun in the late 1960s of bringing in artists to humanize technology and create more expansive-thinking scientists. MIT is at the forefront of this cross-disciplinary movement with its institutional commitment, but it is drawing on a legacy of artists who are interested in science that dates back to Leonardo da Vinci and that has proliferated as technology has become ever more commonplace and accessible.”
This past December, Saraceno and
collaborators displayed a large inflatable Mylar sculpture at Solutions COP21—an exhibition of scientific and educational innovations that took place alongside the UN Climate Conference in Paris. The floating sculpture, called Aerocene, exemplifies the nexus of science and art. Born from a collaboration between Saraceno, MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, and CAST, Aerocene draws on atmospheric physics principles and ‘thermodynamic imagination’ to inspire new ways of thinking about emission-free air travel and atmospheric research.
Illari and research associate Bill McKenna worked closely with Saraceno and CAST’s Leila Kinney to explore the possibility of launching an array of solar balloons all over the stratosphere, measuring critical chemical constituents, such as ozone, at almost zero energy cost.
Read more about this collaboration and others
here. Aerocene was also featured in the journal
Nature Physics and
Dezeen.