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Project Research

Self Assembling Space Frames

Ever wish you could toss your folded up tent and have it self-assemble mid-air?  Well...you can. In a zero gravity environment.Self As…
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Archived
Project Research

Harmony in Precarity

By Po-Hao ChiHow could microgravity/hypergravity shape our perceptual experience of listening with weightlessness? How can we seek to explo…
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Archived
Project Research

Miniature Optical Steered Antenna for Intersatellite Communication (MOSAIC)

The Miniature Optical Steered Antenna for Intersatellite Communications (MOSAIC)By Shreeyam KackerThe Miniature Optical Steered Antenn…
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Archived
Project Research

Moving Liquids With No Moving Parts

Solid-state microfrabricated devices are in development to replace contemporary heavy mechanical components for use in spacecraft propellan…
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Archived
Project Research

Ø-scillation: oscillating chemistry in zero gravity and beyond

How did life originate? Nobody knows. Life might not even be native to our Earth - it might have come from asteroids or the interstellar me…
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Archived
Project Research

AgriFuge

By Somayajulu Dhulipala and Manwei ChanAs humanity explores deeper into space, long-duration missions will require horticulture activities …
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Archived
Project Research

Panspermia

By Nancy Valladares and Rae Yuping HsuThis project is an art performance that seeks to rethink imaginaries of multispecies surviv…
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Archived
Project Research

SpaceHuman 2.0

SpaceHuman is a soft robotics device designed to facilitate the exploration of environments with reduced gravity in a view of democratizati…
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Archived
Project Research

ELI: Electronic Life-detection Instrument

Life on Mars, if it exists, could have been transferred between Earth and Mars due to meteorite impacts. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial G…
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Archived
Project Research

Orbit Weaver

Gravity anchors all existence on Earth.It pulls a chaotic world to one single point in every moment of life. Even though gravity is everywh…
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Archived
Project Research

Space Webs as Infrastructure for distributed sensor networks and other infrastructure on low gravity bodies

We study textiles and nets as a base form for growing infrastructure and allowing reconfigurable sensing on low gravity bodies (for instanc…
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Archived
Project Research

The Telemetron

Today, the environments that humans occupy in space are designed for survival. Humans are carefully shuttled to and from space, and during …
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Article Research

Feet on Earth, head in the stars

These five women at the MIT Media Lab are advancing aerospace science and research, driven by a love of our home planet.
Project Research

Machine learning approach to design acoustic experiences

Machine learning in acoustics is an emerging field with great potential yet to be explored. Previous research includes predicting acoustic …
Article Research

Making movement visible

Media Lab alum Nell Breyer discusses her new work, “Where Lines Converge,” previously on view in Manhattan’s Central Synagogue.
Article Research

Generative AI for makers: AI has truly arrived — and it’s here to help you make and craft

Personal Robots alum Stefania Druga and editor Keith Hammond explore the ways that crafters and makers can use generative AI techniques.
Post Research

President of the University of Guadalajara talks hyper-technology and social responsibility in higher education

On June 8, 2023, a delegation from the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) visited the MIT Media Lab to meet with faculty and researchers rega…
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Project Research

Microgravity Extrusion

Traditional additive manufacturing processes, especially those that make use of liquid resin as the feedstock, are constrained by the gravi…
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Archived
Research
Social Machines

Promoting deeper learning and understanding in human networks
Course Research

MAS.S64 - City Sci-fi: Speculative Movie Making Towards the Design of Future Cities

This class is a hands-on workshop on fiction narrative and movie making.
Article Research

MIT Museum Collection Highlights: Holography

Explore the MIT Museum's collection of holograms, which includes examples of the rainbow holograms developed by Stephen Benton.
Publication Research

Adaptive Virtual Neuroarchitecture

Jain, A., Maes, P., Sra, M. (2023). Adaptive Virtual Neuroarchitecture. In: Simeone, A., Weyers, B., Bialkova, S., Lindeman, R.W. (eds) Everyday Virtual and Augmented Reality. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05804-2_9
Project Research

Two Mobility Futures 0∞

Two Mobility Futures 0∞ is a research project that encompasses storytelling, a democratic decision making platform, a city model, and an im…
Inventing the future of digitally augmented objects and environments.
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Archived
Project Research

City Science Lab @ Aalto

Aalto University, Finland, and the MIT Media Lab’s City Science group are co-developing a version of the MIT CityScope platform for urban a…
Archived
Article Research

Breathing Architecture

Ekene Ijeoma's Breathing Pavilion installation explores the power and meaning of breath.
Article Research

Unconventional Investigations: Google's Chrisoula Kapelonis on a Human-Centric Approach, Interfaces for Living, and the Effects of Space

Chrisoula Kapelonis discusses the Media Lab's impact on her current work at the intersection of technology and built environment.
Article Research

'I Make Tiny Homes That Can Grow 33% Bigger'

Hasier Larrea, an alum of the City Science research group, talks about the research that led him to co-found spinoff Ori.
Archived
Research
Scalable Cooperation

Reimagining human cooperation in the age of social media and artificial intelligence
Center for Civic Media
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Archived
Research
Object-Based Media

Changing storytelling, communication, and everyday life through sensing, understanding, and new interface technologies
Article Research

Butlr's people-sensing platform is designed as Google Analytics for buildings

In Dezeen, learn more about Butlr, a spinoff co-founded by former Labbers Honghao Deng and Jiani Zeng.
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Project Research

Digital Construction Platform

The Digital Construction Platform (DCP) is an experimental enabling technology for large-scale digital manufacturing. In contrast to the ty…
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Article Research

MIT Media Lab trials modular tiles that self-assemble into "entirely novel type of space architecture"

Ariel Ekblaw talks about the TESSERAE project, which was tested on the Space Station during the recent Axiom Space AX-1 mission.
Project Research

KnittedKeyboard II

Spanning from the early Musical Telegraph and Electronic Sackbut, to the late EMS Synthi AKS and Moog Synthesizers, electronic music and mu…
Article Research

3 Questions: Ariel Ekblaw on building beautiful architecture in space

The TESSERAE project, a design for self-assembling space structures and habitats, has sent prototypes to the International Space Station.
Project Research

With(in)

With(in) is a multi-stage project that includes an exhibit, installation, qualitative exploration, and visual storytelling.This is a s…
Article Research

Window 0∞

How will new mobility patterns shape the built environment?
Article Research

Ariel Ekblaw: Space Colonization and Self-Assembling Space Megastructures

Ariel Ekblaw talks about leading the Space Exploration Initiative, self-assembling space architecture, science fiction, + long-term thinking
Article Research

Building a visual world

Article by cinematographer and visual artist Sean Webley 
Article Research

Love 0∞

How do new mobility patterns interfere relationships?
Gallery Research

Two Mobility Futures - testing space

Prototyping and testing space of Two Mobility Futures 0∞.  
Archived
Project Research

Glass II

Optically transparent and structurally sound, glass has played a significant role in the evolution of product and architectural design acro…
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Archived
Project Research

Wanderers

The Wanderers were unveiled as part of the exhibition: ‘The Sixth Element: Exploring the Natural Beauty of 3D Printing' on display a…
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Archived
Project Research

Gemini

Gemini—an acoustical “twin chaise"—spans multiple scales of the human existence extending from the warmth of the womb to the stretches of…
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Archived
Project Research

Totems

Biodiversity on planet Earth is under momentous threat, with extinction rates estimated between 100 and 1,000 times their pre-human level. …
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Article Research

Robotic cubes shapeshift in outer space

Self-reconfiguring ElectroVoxels use embedded electromagnets to test applications for space exploration.
Article Research

Ori’s partnership with Marriott Hotels, announced at CES this week

Spinoff Ori, co-founded by alum Hasier Larrea, has announced an agreement to partner with Marriott Hotels’ Design Lab.
How buildings and cities can become more intelligently responsive to the needs and desires of their inhabitants.
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Archived
Project Research

superpose - A connected experience of sound and space

The superpose installation mediates continuously changing wave phenomena within a space that are visible, audible, and react to the presenc…
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Archived
Project Research

Gravity Proof: Speculating Cosmic Futures

Gravity Proof is a performance and mission to prepare and cook bread in space. Inspired by ancient recipes and archaeological bread re…
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Article Research

Moon Village at Biennale Architettura 2021 | Life Beyond Earth

Life Beyond Earth is a multidisciplinary project that explores advanced space architecture concepts to enable humankind to live on the Moon.
Project Research

A Scalable Networked Smart Sensate Skin

We have developed tightly coupled sensor network that tries to mimic some of the sensory characteristics of a natural skin. Developed in a …
Archived
Publication Research

Electronic Textile Gaia: Ubiquitous Computational Substrates Across Geometric Scales

Wicaksono, I.*, Cherston, J.*, & Paradiso, J. A. (2021). Electronic Textile Gaia: Ubiquitous Computational Substrates Across Geometric Scales. IEEE Pervasive Computing.
Article Research

‘Living’ space as the newest frontier: MIT’s Ariel Ekblaw to focus on self-assembling space architecture and habitats in CLS

Ariel Ekblaw spoke at the Chautauqua Institution about her novel space architecture ideas and a call for more dialogue on space ethics.
Course Research

MAS.S72. How to Write Academic Grant Proposals and Research Manuscripts

Description: Designed for grant proposal and research publication student writers, this course presents a general overview as well as …
Post Research

Six suborbital research payloads fly on Blue Origin New Shepard

The projects on board the Media Lab's first suborbital rocket flight
Post Research

Zero Gravity Flight 2019

This mission included participation from several departments at MIT and outside collaborators from across the globe.
Publication Research

With(in): Three women, three informal settlements, and the rituals of the meal as a microcosm of urban life

Advincula, Larson 2021. With(in): Three women, three informal settlements, and the rituals of the meal as a microcosm of urban life.
Gallery Research

With(in)_book

With(in) book. 
Archived
Project Research

Silk Pavilion II

What are radically sustainable methods for knitting, making and building in the age of the Anthropocene? How can humankind and members of o…
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Archived
Project Research

Maiden Flight

Maiden Flight is an autonomous biological laboratory environment designed for studying the impact of space flight on the sole reproductive …
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Archived
Project Research

FIBERBOTS: Design of a multi-agent, fiber composite digital fabrication system

FIBERBOTS is a digital fabrication platform fusing cooperative robotic manufacturing with abilities to generate highly sophisticated materi…
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Water-Based Additive Manufacturing

This research presents water-based robotic fabrication as a design approach and enabling technology for additive manufacturing (AM) of biod…
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Archived
Project Research

DCP: Digital Construction Environment

The Digital Construction Environment is the first architectural-scale structure fabricated with the Digital Construction Platform (DCP). U…
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Archived
Project Research

Silk Pavilion

The Silk Pavilion explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales.The primary st…
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Archived
Project Research

Living Mushtari

How can we design relationships between the most primitive and the most sophisticated life forms? Can we design wearables embedded with s…
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Archived
Project Research

Digital Construction Platform v.1

The Digital Construction Platform (DCP) is an in-progress research project consisting of a compound robotic arm system. The system comprise…
Archived
Gallery Research

With(in)_homes

Gihan, Eva, and MamaG's homes.
Article Research

Eva

It’s easy to spot Eva as she makes her way through the dusty streets of Lomas. Her big blond hair, military boots and bold clothes, often s…
Article Research

Gihan

Gihan moved to Ezbet Khairallah not long ago. Escaping from an abusive marriage, she bravely left home in upper Egypt with her three kids —…