Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman

Artist Janet Echelman will discuss her new book, <a href="https://papress.com/products/radical-softness">Radical Softness: The Responsive Art of Janet Echelman</a>, in a conversation with art historian Gloria Sutton and John Ochsendorf, MIT professor and structural engineer. Together, they'll explore the intersections of art, architecture, and responsive design in the urban landscape. The MIT Museum's newest exhibtion Remembering the Future (coming soon), is the culmination of the book's narrative which spans the past twenty-five years of Janet Echelman's monumentally scaled public sculptures using unlikely materials, from atomized water particles to engineered fiber fifteen times stronger than steel. She weaves ancient craft and computational modeling software into an utterly unique art form. Radical Softness is a comprehensive sourcebook that unpacks Echelman's vital practice and her ongoing commitment to Taking Imagination Seriously, the title of her TED Talk which has been translated into thirty-five languages and has more than two million views. It features mesmerizing color photographs, a foreword by fellow creative Swizz Beatz, and contributions from a diverse range of internationally recognized scholars, engineers, designers, architects, and curators contextualizing the interdisciplinary impact of Echelman within the fields of global art history, architecture, computation, and landscape architecture. Copies of Radical Softness will be available for purchase and signing after the talk, courtesy of the MIT Press Bookstore. $5

MIT Museum

Cosmic Coda: A Journey Through Space, Time, and Discovery

Join us for an evening of film and conversation featuring Cosmic Coda, a documentary by MJ Doherty. How do you build a machine to test an idea—Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity—that’s beyond most people’s comprehension? And what does an astrophysicist actually do on a regular Tuesday while probing the depths of space? In Cosmic Coda, a naive grad student filmmaker asks these questions in 1985—then returns nearly 40 years later to continue the journey, capturing one of the most profound scientific discoveries of our time as it happens. Through selected clips from the film and a live discussion with physicists Lisa Barsotti, David Kaiser, and Lyman Page, this special program traces the story of LIGO and the landmark detection of gravitational waves. Together, we’ll explore how our understanding of the universe—and the very nature of scientific discovery—has evolved across generations. September 30 6 - 7:30pm $15 General Admission, $5 for MIT ID Holders

Time Travel on Screen: Time After Time

Join us at the MIT Museum for a special film series exploring time travel through the lens of science fiction cinema. Presented in partnership with the <a href="https://www.bostonscifi.com/">Boston Sci Fi Film Festival</a>. From Victorian inventors to futuristic hitmen, each screening offers a unique take on the paradoxes, perils, and possibilities of traveling through time. Time After Time 1979, Director: Nicholas Meyer 112 mins. Rated PG In Victorian England, author H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) lets his friends in on a secret: he's successfully built a time machine and intends to use it to travel to the future in search of a utopian society. But one of those friends, Dr. John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner) has his own secret: he's Jack the Ripper. After the doctor uses the machine, Wells travels to 1970s San Francisco in pursuit of him, where he's helped a beautiful, independent bank employee (Mary Steenburgen). This screening is presented in collaboration with <a href="https://www.openspace.mit.edu/">MIT Open Space Programming</a> and will be held in the Kendall/MIT Open Space. Free Registration Recommended -&gt; <a href="https://www.openspace.mit.edu/calendar/outdoor-movie-time-after-time">https://www.openspace.mit.edu/calendar/outdoor-movie-time-after-time</a>

Day of Design 

How can design be implemented across diverse subject areas and disciplines in K-12 education? Through engaging, hands-on workshops and a panel featuring creative practitioners in STEM, this community-focused event for educators will explore essential design skills at the core of Day of Design's curriculum: storytelling, iteration, and collaboration. This event is presented by the Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) and the MIT Museum, with support from the WPS Institute and the MIT pK-12 as part of Day of Design, an initiative offering free, open source curriculum resources and hands-on design activities for classrooms. In an era of rapid change, design education equips students with essential skills for navigating uncertainty: critical thinking, clear communication, and adaptive problem-solving. Unlike traditional course material, design introduces the notion that there are many ways to solve or address a challenge, and bridges theory and practice for real-world applications. At MIT, we work to celebrate and amplify the power of design as a cornerstone of education. MIT students apply design across a wide range of disciplines from biology to engineering, humanities to architecture; with Day of Design, we want to empower young people in K-12 with the same toolkit. This event will bring together K-12 teachers and administrators, members of the MIT community, and Cambridge and Boston-area K-12 design educators to build meaningful relationships and share insights. Interested in joining?&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfzjULMQrESBsRfDtGBRAV7rtjlG-r7d7KRhWvlNXrtNrpaLA/viewform">Fill out this form</a>&nbsp;to apply — no design experience required! September 25, 2025 1:00 - 4:45pm Free

Cambridge Science Carnival 

A family-friendly science extravaganza, Carnival is an entertaining and educational STEAM-themed event featuring over 100 activity booths, demonstrations, live music and installations!

Kendall/MIT Open Space

Ig Nobel: Face to Face

Join us at the MIT Museum for an Ig Nobel Prize companion event, Ig Nobel Face-to-Face. The very first Ig Nobel ceremony was held in the former MIT Museum building in 1991. We're excited to now host a new twist on this very popular celebration of of scientific achievement in our new space. Ig Nobel: Face to Face brings 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners together, in-person, with the opportunity to ask each other questions about their work, and answer questions from the audience. The event will be hosted by Improbable Research Founder Marc Abrahams. The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate ten achievements so surprising that they make people LAUGH, and then THINK. The <a href="https://improbable.com/ig/about-the-ig-nobel-prizes/">35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony</a> will be held at Boston University on September 18. Free with museum admission.

Optiker Gallery Talk

Experience Stephen Benton's "rainbow" holograms in Optiker, an intimate exhibition that examines the intersection of light and vision. The tour will be led by MIT Museum Studio Director Seth Riskin. Free with museum admission.

Family Workshop: Egg Drop

Practice your engineering skills in this hands-on family workshop, as you compete to build the best protective capsule for an egg drop! This workshop is designed for families and friends working in small groups. Children must be age 11 and above, and must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the workshop.

Remembering the Future: Reception and Panel Discussion

Join us at the MIT Museum for a special celebration for artist Janet Echelman's new installation, Remembering the Future. Remembering the Future is a site-specific installation commissioned by the MIT Museum, created during Echelman's residency as a Distinguished Visiting Artist at MIT's Center for Art, Science &amp; Technology (CAST) where she collaborated with architect and engineer Caitlin Mueller and climate scientist Raffaele Ferrari. Inspired by data of the Earth's climate from the last ice age to the present, the sculpture continues into the future visualizing multiple potential trajectories. The evening will feature a panel discussion with Janet Echelman, Caitlin Mueller, and climate scientist Susan Solomon, moderated by MIT Museum Director Michael John Gorman, followed by a reception where visitors can experience the dynamic installation. Please note that seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Overflow space will be made available as needed. September 17 6:30 - 8:30pm Registration required Doors will open at 6:15pm.

Plankton Performance

In this improvised collaboration between artist Jess Holz and composer Senem Pirler, the stars of the show are not human performers, but plankton — lively microorganisms collected from the Charles River and Boston Harbor. Under an advanced Leica DMRB microscope, their movements are captured and projected in real time using a unique time-lapse exposure technique. Projected on our Exchange screen, the agency of these tiny aquatic creatures is highlighted: their movements etched into time through long-exposure time lapse, revealing intricate trails — like brushstrokes in motion — that accumulate and evolve as they swim. The movements of plankton are used as a graphic score by composer and sonic improviser, <a href="https://www.senempirler.com/">Senem Pirler</a>, who responds in real-time to the rhythms, textures, and motion of the plankton. In this multispecies collaboration, Holz and Pirler aim to highlight how plankton reveal themselves and how their movement can inform our decision-making through an improvised performance. The result is what Holz calls Plankton Painting: an audiovisual canvas a millimeter wide created by multitudes of tiny organisms. Rather than presenting plankton as specimens, Plankton Performance elevates them as co-creators — revealing the dynamic, searching behaviors of these microscopic creatures, while also highlighting their relationship with their human collaborators. Plankton are foundational to Earth's ecosystems and among the most abundant forms of life on the planet, yet are invisible to the unaided eye. Their movement capacity can guide us through the unknown and motivate us to embrace the unpredictability of the movement. $20 General Admission, $15 with student ID

Gallery Talk: Computing at MIT - Dynamic Machines

Computation and Engineering are inextricably linked... the more we can compute, the larger the problems we can solve. Join software archaeologist Guy Fedorkow for a short tour of history of computing at MIT, with stops in the 1940s with Vannevar Bush's mechanical Differential Analyzer, the 1950's with MIT's Whirlwind digital computer, and the 1960's with the Apollo Guidance Computer. Free with museum admission.

STEAM Adventures Week 2

Join us at the MIT Museum for a week-long engineering design challenge! Get inspired by the museum galleries and MIT's campus with our staff and learn new skills through hands-on workshops and activities in our education suite. Finish the week off with a showcase and a chance to show off what you and your team have created. This is a week-long program for youth ages 12-15 (entering 7th-9th grade) with limited spots available. Students must be at least 12 years old to participate. STEAM Adventure Week Dates: Week 1: June 23 - June 27 Week 2: August 18 - August 22 Please note that both sessions of STEAM Adventures Week offer the same activities, so participants should choose only one week to attend. $550 per single student, $500 per student for siblings

Monsters of the Deep Gallery Talk

How do you draw a picture of something you've heard about but never seen? How do you see it in the first place? This problem has bedeviled scientists for centuries. Today, we look for things like black holes and gravitational waves. Five hundred years ago, people tried to understand mysterious ocean creatures -- like whales. Join an exhibition curator for a tour of Monsters of the Deep (opening April 18) to see how sailors, scholars, and everyday people turned monsters into mammals. Additional Monsters of the Deep Gallery Talk Dates: August 22

Family & Friends Workshop: Holograms & 3D Perception

How is it possible for our eyes and brain to perceive depth when viewing a flat surface? Explore several types of 3D effects, including some that are often confused with holograms, and learn what's special about holograms like those in the Optiker exhibition. Then create your own hologram of a small object! Choose from items provided or bring your own (&lt; 2 inches tall, smooth or shiny objects work best). This workshop is designed for anyone age 11 and up; participants under 14 must be with an adult. Workshop prices include museum admission. July 26, 2025 10:30am - 12:00pm $25 for adults, $20 for college students and youth ages 11-18 Additional Workshop Dates: August 16

After Dark: AI & Discovery

Artificial intelligence is changing the game in science — supercharging discovery and driving breakthroughs at a pace we've never seen before. From biology and chemistry to physics, AI is now woven into nearly every corner of research, helping scientists work smarter, faster, and more precisely. Join us for our next After Dark event for an evening of discovery, hands-on exploration, and engaging conversation. Mingle with cutting-edge researchers who are using AI to create life-saving medicines, explore a mind-blowing new tool that uses Wi-Fi to "see" through walls, and lend a hand to scientists training AI to understand puppy behavior. While you're here, swing by a special pop-up display to meet some of the coolest robots in our collection. Delicious dumplings from <a href="https://meimeidumplings.com/">Mei Mei</a> and local brews from <a href="https://www.drinkarlingtonbeer.com/">Arlington Brewing Company</a> will be available for purchase. Presented in collaboration with the <a href="https://jclinic.mit.edu/">MIT Jameel Clinic</a>.

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

Community recs 💬

S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S17: interest based

Your guide to everything free in and around Boston. From events, to fairs, to festivals, to outdoors. Joyraft has all the free events happening near you.

100+ free things to do in Boston and beyond

Free things to do in Boston

Free things to do

S19: interest based

Kid-friendly events in Boston

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.

Where

mitmuseum

Experiences