The Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) offers a working environment that encourages collaborations among artists, scientists, and technologists. These are built around projects undertaken by resident fellows, who also conduct seminars and supervise undergraduate participation.
CAVS provides an integrative structure for projects that span disciplinary domains. New laboratory facilities make the tools of the digital arts available for these inquiries, and provide a common ground for extensive and ambitious collaborations.
CAVS was established in 1968 by Gyorgy Kepes, who emphasized the responsibilities of artists in building bridges between individuals and their environment, between individuals in groups, and between each of us and our inner lives. Under the direction of Otto Piene, projects reached an environmental scale, and Krzysztof Wodiczko brought attention to the relationships among science, technology, and contemporary culture.
Researchers at CAVS have pioneered the use of multimedia technologies, including lasers, plasma sculptures, sky art, and scientific visualization, as tools of creative expression. Ongoing research includes Krzysztof Wodiczko's Interrogative Design projects and Elizabeth Goldring's Vision Arts.
CAVS's contributions to visual arts education at MIT have included Computational Art; Studio/Seminar in Public Art; Experiences in Interactive Expression; Art, Science, and Technology after the Cold War; Design, Technology, and Ethics: Tactical Design Workshop; and the freshman seminar Ethical Media Art. Although CAVS has no academic program of its own, it collaborates with the Visual Arts Program (Course 4) and the Media Laboratory on a wide range of projects.
For further information, please contact the director, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Room N52-390, MIT, 617-253-4415, fax 617-253-1660, cavs@mit.edu.