MIT maths department art, featuring Spongebob!

The other day I was walking through the maths department (or math department, I suppose) and I found......

Yep, "TRASH ART", positioned in front of art which probably cost money, in the form of a mural.

There were four bits of art. The helpful coffee cup sign, and then these three guys...

How wonderfully nerdy is this?!?!?! Fourier Trasform Spongebob, a boxcar, and get a sinc-ed up Patrick.

I didn't expect to see Spongebob Fourier transform themed corridor art at MIT, but I don't really expect most of the things I see at MIT.

Acrobats under the dome

On Wednesday morning (the day after the dalek got put on the Stata Center) I walked into lobby 7 to discover a CIRCUS had appeared under the dome at MIT!

I love it so much! Although the dummies are a bit creepy.....

Unlike the appearance of a dalek on the Stata Center, every person who passed by this hack noticed it. You can see from my photos that lots of people stopped to have a look and take pictures. I thought the the ribbons to turn the Dome into a big top were particularly pretty and I love that there were so many performers to look at! The suspended ones were really impressive.

There was something on or above all four platforms (headstand guy balanced on chairs, upside down hanging guy, ringmaster and hanging circle guy, man being shot out of a canon), a tightrope walker going across the middle of the dome and my personal favourite, the trapeze artist above the main automatic doors.

You can even see the trapeze artist from Mass Ave, outside lobby seven.

The most astonishing thing was that the trapeze guy had a SWINGING mechanism!!

I'm sorry about the poor quality of the gif, but note the swinging!
Also marvel at my ability to make gifs. Marvel.

The campus appears to have a higher than normal number of visitors at the moment. I think that that might be why the hackers felt the need to put lots and lots of this sign up around the dome this morning (on day two of the hack). 

Maybe people were confused? MIT hacking is confusing initially (in my case, after being exposed to a hack for the first time I thought it was an official thing). I do like the fact that the circus has a name too;

"Mens et Manus Bros. Lobby 7 Circus"

Back to back hacks this week, people! *And* it's been a four day week (for Patriots Day, I patriotically went shopping in American Eagle and Clarks, whilst feeling sorry for the poor marathon runners in the 30C heat). I wonder if there will be any more hacks this week? It seems like a lot of the hacking space is already in use. Don't worry - I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Papier mâché bomb under the dome!

There's a papier mâché bomb under the dome this morning.

I wonder why......

Ahoy there, Happenings in the Infinite Corridor

First day back after Spring Break and what happens? MIT becomes all MIT-y again.

All aboard the fail boat?

So yeah, there's just a sail boat in lobby ten (under the dome of Killian Court, here's a map to help you out).

Just in case you were in any doubt, here is a more close up photo of the boat. I think it has a rudder?

"Why is there a sail boat in lobby ten?" is what I guess you are wondering.....

I asked this very question at lunch of my officemates, and later of the internet, and apparently it's because the MIT sailing pavilion is now open. Beginners sailing for students starts on April 3rd. I'm guessing that the boat is one of the tech dinghies, but boats are not one of my special Mastermind topics. Or even something I have read about on Wikipedia.

Interesting boat-related MIT fact - the students who complete the sailing, fencing, pistol shooting and archery courses offered by MIT can now formally receive their "pirate certificate" from the physical education people.

“Ahoy, Avast, and finally, Arrrrrr!’’

P.S. Lobby ten is the place where I see people juggling on a Friday evening. I may have mentioned this to some of you IRL as it confused me. I checked the MIT calendar and a) The juggling people are in the MIT calendar every nearly Friday afternoon/evening and b) If you try and juggle they will give you a cookie!

Happenings in the Infinite Corridor - Laser in use!

It's 7pm, it's spring break and MIT is relatively quiet - the corridor is pretty empty. That means it's the perfect time to get some experimenting in - especially with LASERS!

Laser in use when light is flashing! Eep!

Actually, laser based experiments seem to happen pretty frequently - the light is often flashing. The main effect of spring break was to make me less embarrassed about taking photos.

Happenings in the Infinite Corridor - a miscellany

Despite Pi day, this week has been a bit of a disappointment in terms of interesting happenings around MIT. The dome has gone back to being a normal colour and everything. A lot of the poster boards are being redone, so there are fewer unsanctioned posters for crazy stuff. So instead of one crazy story from the infinite corridor, this week I will show you all the weird little things that I have taken pictures of in the infinite corridor since I arrived that don't really warrant their own post. I'll try and do it so they go from the East side of campus to the west, finishing under the dome in lobby 7.

Proof that the infinite corridor is so-called by everyone at MIT, even sign makers.

Here is a helpful light to guide you down the infinite corridor. It was only there for a day, but I saw someone video-ing it as it flashed away, so perhaps it has been saved on the internet for posterity (the lights all flashed, to make the light look like it was moving away from me, down the corridor).

Miscellaneous painted posters from the class of 2008. There were a lot more than just these two, but I couldn't stop at every poster board in the corridor! Also note the nerdily named Valentine's dating site, nChoosetwo.com - oh MIT, you are so MIT-ish.

The cute little beaver in the collage below is an app competition mascot. The little sign for the Green Room reads "The prime location for MIT students to take a break or nap while travelling down the infinite corridor". I have never seen anyone napping in the Green room, but I did once see a girl with a totally fantastic unicorn hat. And not forgetting the robot overlord poster under the dome...

Finally, more pictures of the dome being purple, including a purple ribbon last Friday.

 I still find the robot overlords sign funny. I'm not sure anything will be as good a "happening" as that.

Happenings in the Infinite Corridor - Divided by a common language

Being in a different Cambridge can be confusing, but also reassuring. There are lots of very similar street names, with my personal favourite being Sidney Street, for obvious reasons. However, there are also common words, like "punt" which have completely different meanings in different Cambridges.

Here is punting in Cambridge, England.

Oh my goodness! We all look so YOUNG! Photos from the time of film.

Here is my understanding of punting in Cambridge, MA. Or at least Cambridge, MIT.

Every day I'm facebooking.

Here is what the MIT admission blog's MIT-ese bit says about punting:

"punt (v.) - (1) To slack off, e.g. by checking Facebook, playing Rock Band, or blogging; often contrasted with tool (v.) (2) To skip something, e.g. a problem set or meeting ("I'm so hosed with 8.022, I'm going to have to punt this 7.013 pset..."); generally bad things happen to students who punt too often."

I didn't know that when I saw this sign in the infinite corridor though. So I was confused. Mainly confused about how you would punt in the traditional British Cambridge way in the Charles, as it is MASSIVE, particularly compared to the Cam.

Punt more and kick back - good advice

Then I found that the sign had some friends.
I became one of the annoying people in the infinite corridor that stops dead and causes near collisions. Let's pretend that's why all the photos are so blurry.

"Ignore alarms and cook on" = Maybe something about setting off fire alarms in dorms?
"Long nights and infinite corridors" = MIT in a nutshell?

I think that the posters had something to do with the engineering department, but my Googling has turned up nothing to that effect. Let me know if you have any more luck than I did.
My Googling did find this poster though, which I encourage you to click through to, because it is the best of all the MIT "Keep Calm" style posters.

Happenings in the Infinite Corridor (nearly!) - MIT turns purple

On my walk home this evening I noticed that lobby 7 seemed different.

There was no disembodied voice talking about MIT because the "Under the Dome" video screen was broken, but that was not it.

Instead the mood felt different.

Then I looked up....

The middle bit is kind of turquoise. I would totally keep the dome like this all the time. 

....the dome was purple!! 

And hard to photograph. I was not the only person repeatedly waving my phone above my head.

Then I left lobby 7 I saw that the symbol dude (or, more properly, Alchemist) was also pinky purple.

You can see the pinky purple ceiling of the dome through the entrance to MIT. I also particularly like the Pi themed graffiti on the Symbol Dude. Not that I am pro graffiti, but I like the fact that MIT graffiti is nerdy.

Unexpected. But just what I needed at the end of a long day arguing with compilers. 

Of course, people didn't turn MIT purple to cheer me up. I hope it is a statement for marriage equality, and will keep an eye on the Tech to confirm/deny my suspicions.
Update: It's actually been turned purple for the Relay for Life according to the Tech. The Tech also has a much better picture! You should click through and have a look-see.

This is one of the things I really like about MIT. There are these big shared spaces that get creatively decorated for a whole variety of reasons. Not only is it a sign of an engaged community, which considerately draws attention to the causes it is passionate about, but it always makes walking around campus an interesting experience.

Embiggened hipster (i.e. instagrammed) symbol dude.

Happenings in the Infinite Corridor - Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

MIT has this corridor which is known as the infinite corridor. It is very long.
I walk through it everyday on my way into work. I start out under the dome in lobby 7 (where I first saw a real life MIT hack). The infinite corridor and lobby 7 are the source of most of my little MIT stories. So I thought I'd collect all of the cool little things that I have seen in and around MIT into some kind of series. A lot of the time I'll put photos of stuff like this on facebook, so I'm sorry if you end up seeing the same photo twice, but I know some people read my blog that are not my facebook friends (for example - Hi, Grandma!)

When I walk into lobby 7 at the moment the first thing I see is this:

Banner for MIT's 150th birthday, complete with the 2011 brass rat

MIT turned 150 years old last year! Happy Birthday, MIT! 

Sadly Harvard also had a significant birthday last year. They turned 375 years old had a giant red velvet cake (Harvard colours are red velvet cake colours). I haven't heard about any giant cakes for MIT's birthday celebrations, so maybe I'm not so sad about missing them. Maybe MIT makes up for the lack of cake on Pi Day? Mmmm... pie.

These are the views from under the dome in lobby 7 down the infinite corridor and straight up into the dome.

Even at 7:15 pm there are people going places in MIT

So now that the scene is set (a little bit) I'll show you Friday's lobby 7 happening / hack.

Just in case you can't read the banner in my ropey photo (sorry, I was in a bit of hurry!). Here is a zoomed in and instagram-ed version...

But not only was there a banner, the pillars under the dome were also decorated.

The right hand column pillars are either side of the entrance, hence the weird light.
My favourite is the blue one. Obviously.

It certainly brightened up my Friday morning!
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!