FAST Arts Festival: Mark Your Calendar

Celebrating the Institute’s signature blend of art, science and technology, the FAST festival at MIT celebrates student, staff, and alumni contributions to the arts through a series of events during the spring semester. For those close to campus, consider attending one of the remaining four weekend programs (more info below). Far flung alumni, stay tuned; we'll have updates on some of the major events as they happen.

FAST THINKING March 5: Radical research on music and language, and vision and neuroscience, which a special appearance by London's famed Lontano Ensemble. The concert features work by MIT faculty composers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison, Bang-on-a-Can All-Star Evan Ziporyn, and world premieres by Charles Shadle and Peter Child.

FAST OPERA March 18–25: US premiere of Death and the Powers, a musically and technologically visionary "robotic" opera by Tod Machover, developed at the MIT Media Lab. Commissioned by Futurum Assocation of Monaco and given its world premiere at the Monte Carlo Opera in September 2010, the opera includes animated walls, a chorus of robots, and a musical chandelier, launching a new era in opera production and expression. This production is a collaboration with the American Repertory Theater.

FAST FUTURE April 15–16: A music/media marathon combining the Kronos Quartet, Bang-on-a-Can, Wu Man, and MIT's own Gamelan Galak Tika and Chamber Chorus; featuring hyperstrings and a MIDI Gamelan. Followed by an unprecedented convening of MIT's creative arts faculty, alumni and students, which will reveal how new creative practices emerge in MIT's unique environment and how these processes can be expanded and enhanced in the future.

FAST LIGHT May 7: The culminating event of the FAST Festival, will shimmer on the waterfront of MIT’s campus on the evening of May 7th. A night of kinetic illumination kicks off with the launch of Otto Piene’s Sky Event, when a group of students and alumni fly a large-scale, brightly lit star over Killian Court. From dusk until dark, FAST Light will glow along the Charles River waterfront and on MIT’s campus with projects created by MIT students and faculty. Each work incorporates light, taking advantage of MIT’s infrastructure in dynamic, energy-efficient and inventive ways.

For more information about the FAST Arts Festival, please contact the FAST organizers.

Get more details on the FAST Website.