The MIT List Visual Arts Center will host a performative lecture with Goldin+Senneby in celebration of the opening of Goldin+Senneby: Flare-Up.Swallow Image is a conversation about images of illness and the revision of reality by drug companies.At the beginning of the new millennium, Jakob Senneby squinted at a grayscale image of his brain while a doctor traced a series of white blobs on the screen. His doctor told him that these figures, captured by an MRI scan, were “white spots”: signs of damage to the nervous system that are associated with multiple sclerosis. In the following years, Senneby—one half of the artist duo Goldin+Senneby—cycled through experimental and largely ineffectual treatments, tracking the progress of the disease with each scan, with each crop of “attacks” launched by his immune system. As he lost faith in the drugs, Senneby learned that the white spots have proven to be a source of immense, hidden value: a booming economy is based on visualizing, counting, and measuring the spots in the development of pharmaceuticals. The drugs have become more and more successful in treating the white spots in the image, but not in addressing the onset of permanent disability—the most critical consequence of the disease. Nevertheless, the value of the market for treatments has reached nearly $30 billion per year.For Swallow Image, Goldin+Senneby will give a presentation on the evolution of “sick images”—depictions of illness that obscure the accounts of patients—and the lucrative market for MS drugs. The event picks up on Triple Canopy’s publication of two related works by Goldin+Senneby: "Spot Price," a blockchain-based artwork that links scans of Senneby’s diseased brain to the value of the drugs targeting such images; and “Regions of Interest,” an essay on living as a medical specimen and source of profit for drug companies.Following the program, please join us for the opening reception of the fall exhibitions, Goldin+Senneby: Flare-Up, American Artist: To Acorn, and List Projects 33: Every Ocean Hughes.

Silent Meditation in the Chapel on Thursdays 6-8pm, open to everyone in the MIT Community. Some sessions include Guided Meditation at 6:30pm.

Get an inside look at what recruiters from Formlabs look for in candidate portfolios. Learn which projects to highlight, how to make your work stand out, and tips for building a strong portfolio.This session is especially helpful if you're preparing for the MechE Career Expo on Friday, November 7. You'll also hear about MIT resources to support your portfolio development.We’re looking for a few volunteers to submit their portfolios for a live anonymized review by Formlabs recruiters. The recruiters will talk through their feedback on the portfolio during the session. This is a great opportunity to get real-time feedback and better understand how employers evaluate portfolios.Interested in volunteering your portfolio? Email it to Tavi Sookhoo (tsookhoo@mit.edu). We'll anonymize it and send it back for your approval before the session.This CAPD event is open to MIT undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and recent alumni.Registration is required for this event. Please register here.

Free and open to all!Join us for a cozy screening of Pride & Prejudice (PG) presented in collaboration with the PKG Public Service Center and the MIT Women’s League. Bring your craft projects along and feel free to sew or stitch while you watch; we’ll keep the lights up!Please note that seating is available on a first come, first served basis, regardless of registration.

Farming While Black (dir Mark Decena; 2023) Thur Oct 23 @ 7pm Room 3-133As the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, Leah Penniman finds strength in the deep historical knowledge of African agrarianism – agricultural practices that can heal people and the planet. Influenced and inspired by Karen Washington, a pioneer in urban community gardens in New York City, and fellow farmer and organizer Blain Snipstal, Leah galvanizes around farming as the basis of revolutionary justice.In 1910, Black farmers owned 14 percent of all American farmland. Over the intervening decades, that number fell below two percent, the result of racism, discrimination, and dispossession. The film chronicles Penniman and two other Black farmers’ efforts to reclaim their agricultural heritage. Collectively, their work has a major impact as leaders in the sustainable agriculture and food justice movements.**Special Bonus!**We’ll also be screening the documentary short Soul City:Soul City (dir. Monica Berra, SheRea DelSol, Gini Richards; 2016)Soul City tells the story of a group of civil rights activists and city slickers who attempt to build a multiracial utopia in the heart of Klan Country, North Carolina in the 1970s. Their pioneering efforts to jumpstart this black-owned, black-built town run up against tenacious enemies that still face idealists and dreamers today–ingrained racism, public skepticism, and unwillingness on the part of the government to think outside the box to solve social problems. As this group of dreamers try to bring together unlikely allies to support black power and economic development, they are forced to balance their soaring idealism with the hostile reality of the times.Popcorn and movie candy provided; after the screening, please join us for a discussion of the themes explored in the films. This special event is co-sponsored by SCC, DUSP Rural, the DUSP Civil Rights Immersion Trek, the OGE Grad Experience Grants, and the DUSP Film Series.

Join us for the opening reception to celebrate three new exhibitions at the List Center: Goldin+Senneby: Flare-Up, American Artist: To Acorn, and List Projects 33: Every Ocean Hughes.The opening reception will follow a performative lecture with exhibiting artist Goldin+Senneby from 5:30-6:30PM.Exhibiting artists and exhibition curators will be in attendance. Light refreshments and beverages from Momma's Grocery + Wine will be served.Goldin+Senneby: Flare-UpThe recent work of Stockholm-based artist duo Goldin+Senneby focuses on issues of autoimmunity, accessibility, and ecology. Drawing on the experience of living with multiple sclerosis, the exhibition’s title refers to a treatable aspect of the disease. While the gradual progression of the condition offers limited options for intervention, the sudden flare-ups have attracted significant interest from the pharmaceutical industry, paving the way for lucrative treatments. Flare-Up also alludes to the volatile, inflammable nature of pine resin, which has fueled investment in genetically engineered pines as a potential source of green energy.American Artist: To AcornThe multidisciplinary work of American Artist mines the history of technology, race, and knowledge production. Since 2013, when they legally changed their name, American Artist has examined the boundaries and fissures of subject production under racial capitalism. Some bodies of work figure antiblackness as the unspoken subtext of the history of computing: Black Gooey Universe (2021), for instance, features smartphones and computers engulfed by asphalt. Other works have engaged themes of surveillance and opacity: 2015 (2019) overlays an urban street with a simulation of predictive policing software, while Security Theater (2023) turned the rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum into a sinister panopticon.List Projects 33: Every Ocean Hughes“If it is ever possible to diminish fear, it is beautiful to witness.” So says the death doula in Every Ocean Hughes’s recent video installation, One Big Bag (2021). The work—alongside the performances Help the Dead (2019) and River (2023)—is part of a trilogy that considers the intimate process of dying. In One Big Bag, Hughes stages a monologue by a millennial death doula (performed by Lindsay Rico with choreography by Miguel Gutierrez). Surrounded by the objects of her mobile “corpse kit,” the doula assuredly explains her tools: tampons for absorbing fluid, scissors for cutting cloth, bowls for washing, ceremonial bells.