Art project creates virtual space for student community during quarantine
In Boston/USA as in most places around the world, universities are currently closed due to lock-down restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) started a unique project to keep their creative juices flowing and keep connected within their student community. The students use a blend of art and technology to create an interactive environment.
The project follows in the footsteps of the Borderline Mural Project. Last year, students of the Borderline Club designed and painted the walls of the tunnels that connected two university buildings with 60 colourful murals. At the Borderline Mural Project the students each designed their own personal wall or 'room' along the 61 metres/ 200 ft long underground corridors.
Now the students collaborate again, but in a digital art project as they cannot meet on campus. Within the MIT student community they want to continue to create art together, this time on a digital platform called Tunnel66: isolation, together. This time, their rooms exist only in the virtual world.
Each virtual room gets designed and decorated by a student and each room also includes a long vertical ladder which the students can 'climb up' depending on their own aspirations, destinations and ideas. The ladders are meant to connect the students of the different rooms to feel together although they are still apart.
"It's an opportunity for everyone to share their unique story," says Skylar Gordon, second-year student, "We really hope to see that. And we really hope to see all the stories of MIT."
Another important statement this project wants to make is that there is also a vibrant art community at the university which is best known for its engineering and natural sciences programmes.
The MIT is a private research university is one of the top universities in the world. More than 11 000 students from all over the world study at this university in Boston. The city is also home to Harvard University which is another one of the most highly regarded universities in the world.
Boston is the capital city of the US state of Massachusetts. About 4.8 million people live in the greater Boston metropolitan area.
Source: MIT News
Image: Margaret Zheng/MIT Tunnel66. Click here for a link to the virtual rooms.