MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2017 Activities by Sponsor - Claudia E. Robaina

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EXO Day at the Media Lab

Celine Semaan Vernon, Media Lab Director's Fellow, Designer, Activist, Chris Bevans, MEdia Lab's Director Fellow, Fashion Designer

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/10
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: Prepare your pitch! (read more about this on schedule)

EXO Day is our version of Shark Tank where scientists, artists, engineers and researchers come together to bring their inventions to life. The concept is simple: take a group of students who are normally deeply engrossed in their particular academic inquiry, and ask them to focus on the external productization of their research: brand development, generating revenue for their idea, how to market and sell their product or marketing ideas targeting a real audience within their given industry. The think tank day will allow the participants to focus their undivided attention to their innovative ideas and get the support and structure necessary to push innovation into market.

Individual workshops will be organized with the various guests brought to the Lab. The workshops will focus on two things mainly: Business and Design. The experts joining are either designers who have created products and brands or experts in branding and business who have not only experience to share but also best practices, guidance and both design and business directions on how to tackle their respective markets, etc.

Hosted by Director's Fellows:
Céline Semaan Vernon, Designer and Activist
Chris Bevans, Fashion Designer

Special guests: Ana Andjelic (Havas Lux Hub), Piera Gelardi (@refinery29), Mouna Andraos (Daily tous les jours), Sam Radocchia (Chronicled), Noah Callahan-Bever (Complex.com), and Kiel Berry (SVP, Viacom)

Contact: Claudia Robaina, E14-245, 917-573-8682, robaina@media.mit.edu


DAY 1: Meet & Greet & Pecha Kucha

Jan/12 Thu 05:00PM-07:00PM Media Lab E14-244, Bring your Pitch

In a Pecha Kucha style Elevator-Pitch talk, the students will prepare 20 slides (20 sec/slide) telling the experts and their peers:
1) This is what I am working on
2) This is the problem that I am facing
3) Here is what my goals are

Celine Semaan Vernon - Media Lab Director's Fellow, Designer, Activist, Chris Bevans - MEdia Lab's Director Fellow, Fashion Designer


Day 2: Workshop

Jan/13 Fri 09:30AM-06:00PM Media Lab E14-244, Bring your Pitch

Open workshops
9:30 AM: Opening Talk
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Workshops & Iterations
4:00 PM: Closing Talks, Show & Tell: Students expose to us their quick recap of the day. In 6 minutes, students answer:
1) What I have learned
2) How has this helped me
3) Do I have a business model?

5 PM: Celebration!

Celine Semaan Vernon - Media Lab Director's Fellow, Designer, Activist, Chris Bevans - MEdia Lab's Director Fellow, Fashion Designer


Media Lab Director's Fellows Sheila Hayman's Documentary Film Festival

Sheila Hayman, Media Lab Director's Fellow, Filmmaker

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/10
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: none

During the month of January the Media Lab will screen some of Director's Fellow Sheila Hayman documentary films once a week. On the week of January 23rd, Sheila will be at the Lab, and will host an informal conversation about her films with the students interested in watching them, on January 27, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. The subjects of these films go back to the times when Internet was just being introduced to the masses, and many other technological advancements and discoveries. Sheila believes it might be good to show parts of all of these as a way of introducing where she comes from, creatively, and what we might do together, next. The films will include:

Films to be shown:

Jan. 11: A Short History of the Future: The City (1986) 

Jan. 18: A Short History of the Future: The Spaceship (1986)

Jan. 27: Horizon: The Electronic Frontier (1993) (Sheila Hayman will be in attendance)

 

Contact: Claudia Robaina, E14 Third Floor Atrium, 917-573-8682, robaina@media.mit.edu


A Short History of the Future: The City

Jan/11 Wed 04:00PM-05:00PM E14 3rd Fl. Atrium

As a young filmmaker, Sheila began to wonder where our image of 'the future' came from: all those self-driving cars, helicopters, teleportation machines and automatic everything. She discovered that it all started at the turn of the 20th century, a period as exciting as our own, when motorcars, electricity, X-rays, cinema, the telephone, radio and metal framed building technology arrived within a couple of decades.

Claudia Robaina - Coordinator, Media Lab Director's Fellows Program


ShortHistory of the Future:The Spaceship

Jan/18 Wed 04:00PM-05:00PM E14 3rd fl Atrium

Originally supposed to be a single film, it became two when I discovered the extraordinary story of the codependency of the film and space industries in 20th century America. The movie business gave a concrete form to dreams of space travel before it even existed: the space industry gave the movies great stories in which dilemmas of the time were, and are, played out in allegory.

Claudia Robaina - Coordinator, Media Lab Director's Fellows Program


Horizon: The Electronic Frontier

Jan/27 Fri 04:00PM-06:00PM E14 3rd fl. Atrium

Made in 1993, this was the first network documentary to tell the story of the digital revolution, then unfolding on the West Coast of America. From online communities to the vanishing High St, from invisible digital retouching and graphical user interfaces to copy-and-paste editing, it's all here. It also includes the first major interview with Bill Gates, then just a fresh-faced nerd in a Seattle office.

Claudia Robaina - Coordinator, Media Lab Director's Fellows Program, Sheila Hayman - Media Lab Director's Fellow, Filmmaker


Meditation, Aesthetics, and Expression

The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, Media Lab's Director's Fellos, Karole Armitage, Media Lab's Director's Fellow

Jan/24 Tue 03:00PM-05:00PM E14-240

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/23
Limited to 20 participants
Prereq: Sign-up in advance

The Creative process continues to be a mystery to many of us. For some, it has to do with self-expression and communicating with the world around us. For others, it is an intimate and meditative path that guides them through life. Join Media Lab's Director's Fellows Karole Armitage and Tenzin Priyadarshi in an open conversation as they share their thoughts on creativity, meditation, self-awareness, the role ego can play in the creative process, and the transcending values of art.

This is an interactive conversation (not a lecture). Participation from the attendees is encouraged.

Max. number of participants: 20

SIGN-UP here

Contact: Claudia Robaina, E14-245, 917-573-8682, robaina@media.mit.edu