Brittany Nelson, Broken Plate (from Harvard Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection), 2025. Gelatin silver print, 52 x 62 in (framed)
Graduate Student Talk: Swati Ravi
February 12, 2026
Join Swati Ravi, a Physics PhD candidate at the MIT Kavli Institute for a conversation around List Projects 34: Brittany Nelson.
How do we imagine what we cannot directly see? This lecture connects Brittany Nelson’s artistic practices inspired by space exploration with scientific methods used to study black holes, highlighting the shared roles of imagination, inference, and uncertainty in making the unseen legible. From faint telescope signatures to speculative cosmic narratives, it explores how instruments and creative processes mediate our understanding of the universe, and how meaning, emotion, and structure are drawn from ambiguous, indirect signals across vast distances.
This event is free, but please register through the Eventbrite link in advance.
About the Speaker
Swati Ravi is a Physics PhD candidate at MIT, focusing on some of the universe's most extreme objects: black holes and neutron stars. Her research utilizes space telescopes to analyze X-ray light, mapping the structure and geometry of these cosmic bodies. Additionally, she helps develop and test hardware for future space missions in MIT’s X-ray polarimetry lab. She holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Space Science and Technology from University College Dublin, where her work included research projects for NASA and the International Space Station.
MIT graduate students explore current exhibitions at the List Center through the lens of their own research, background, and interests. Join us for this interdisciplinary lecture series where we dive into how art and research are overlapping on MIT’s campus.