Public Art

Two modern building on the left each with an overhang that has LED sculptures of a signature hanging from the buildings.

Installation view: Agnieszka Kurant, The End of Signature, 2021 and 2022. Collaboration with Katie Lewis, Divya Shanmugam, Jose Javier Gonzalez Ortiz and Professor John Guttag. MIT Collection Commissioned with MIT Percent-for-Art funds. Photo: Charles Mayer Photography

NEW PUBLIC ART

The second installation of Agnieszka Kurant’s Percent-for-Art project The End of Signature was completed at Site 3 (238 Main Street) in June 2022.

The moving LED sculpture accompanies a similar neon sculpture installed last fiscal year on the cantilever of Site 4 (Graduate Tower). The End of Signature is a series of works that translates hundreds of signatures into one “communal signature” by way of an algorithm that determines the median line. The signatures featured for the MIT iteration of the project were solicited from the MIT community for Site 4 and broader Cambridge community for Site 3. 

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Ongoing and Future Percent-for-Art Projects

Four building projects make up ongoing Percent-for-Art commissions. Artists were invited for these commissions, contracts are underway, and these projects will soon be publicly announced. 

The commissions for the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) building and the new Schwarzman College of Computing will be installed in the spring of 2023. Commissions for the new Music Building and the new School of Architecture and Planning at the Metropolitan Warehouse will be installed in 2024 and 2025, respectively. 

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