MIT Museum
This summer, I visited the MIT museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This museum was one of the highlights of my trip and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loved STEAM and is in the Boston area.
One exhibit in particular that stood out to me was the Gestural Engineering Exhibit, showcasing the work and sculpts of Arthur Ganson.
The MIT museum introduces the exhibit as the following:
The work of Arthur Ganson (1955-) brings together the logic of computer programming, the intricacy of surgery, and the expression potential or drawing. His sources or inspiration range from nature and music to found objects and random events.
A self-taught engineer, Ganson began his MIT connection with an exhibit in 1994; during an artist’s residency that following year, he mentored engineering students as they designed “artistic machines”
Ganson uses the principles of mechanics to create “gestures” – physical actions that express feelings and ideas. But he wants viewers to make their own meanings. “With all of these pieces,” he says, “you don’t have to know anything. Everything you feel about them is true – for you.
His many sculptures at first glance look like a genius contraception using mechanical engineering, but on a deeper look, you can feel the meaning behind his pieces.
He creates pieces that bring dull mechanics to life, with each one feeling as though you are watching a fluid animation of mechanics.
