We often think of museums as places of preservation, but we forget to consider them as places of innovation. As we stroll through museums, we typically find ourselves coming face to face with brushworks preserved behind golden frames. Take the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for instance, where visitors drift between a world of Sargent’s fine portraits to Monet’s lily pads in soft pastel bloom. These familiar experiences we have in museum spaces shape how we define art and the value we assign to it. From iconic canvases we’ve all come to recognize, such as the Mona Lisa’s reserved smile and the melting clocks of Dalí’s “The Persistence of Memory,” we often distance ourselves from art, forgetting that it is not solely the product of rare talent — rather, it is a science: a result of practiced skill and humble experimentation.
At the MIT Museum, art feels different. From conversations with a friendly, one-eyed robot named “Jibo,” to poetry-writing with AI and attempts — often failed — to spot the difference between deepfakes and reality, the immersive installations at MIT show us what the future of contemporary art can be. Unlike traditional museums, the museum’s exhibition “AI: Mind the Gap” abandons the formality of preserved visitor distance in traditional galleries, encouraging visitors to interact with artificial intelligence. The effect of the gallery is almost disorienting, offering a playground of uncommon toys to tinker with and reminding us that art is not simply confined to observation, but also participation. Here, the audience becomes the key activator, just as integral to the art as technology itself.
Visitors can end their visit at “The Window,” an interactive digital landscape where they can contribute fragments of their own identity to form data. The collective display is a representation of the community that passes through MIT, taking into account the individual’s preferences through survey questions, highlighting quirky hobbies and passions. After you identify your core values, the interpretation of data computes them into elemental shapes that playfully dance across the screen. This mosaic continues to evolve as more data is added, moving and morphing into unique communities. Though “The Window” is mechanical and computational, its data not only reflects people and their identities, but also fosters human connections.
It’s a misconception that art and technology cannot coexist. Similar to any other type of medium, technology has continuously shaped the human experience, pushing us to challenge the boundaries of conventionality. The museum reveals that these two commonly separated disciplines can be used to bridge the dialogue of human creativity. Technology gives artists new media to work with, from light to algorithms, robotics, and even artificial intelligence. On the other hand, humanity works to humanize inventions, creating a feedback loop in which science inspires art and art continues to reshape the technological world.
In a world anxious about technological replacements and advancements, the MIT Museum offers reassurance. It invites us to see innovation as an extension of humanity and accept creativity at an intersection. Now, it convinces us of a different story: we’re not being replaced, we’re simply being rebooted and rewired.
