“MIT Perspectives on 3.11″ Symposium online

On March 25th, MIT Professors Joseph Sussman, James Wescoat, and Richard Samuels spoke at the “MIT Perspectives on 3.11″ Symposium hosted by the University of Tokyo.  The event was chaired by Architecture Professor Toshio Otsuki and the discussant was Urban Engineering Professor Takashi Onishi, both of the University of Tokyo.

Below you will find the audio recording of the symposium, focusing on the professors’ research and findings in fields from civil engineering and systems research to landscape architecture to political science.  The latter portion of the event, a discussion with Professor Onishi, will be posted soon.

Fall 2011 MIT ACT lecture now online

We now have the opportunity to view online Shun Kanda and Jim Wescoat’s November lecture on the Japan 3/11 Initiative and the “Beauty of Place” in the reconstruction process.

The professors had spoken as part of the Fall 2011 “Zones of Emergency” lecture series, hosted by the MIT Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) Program.

Wescoat and Kanda on the “Beauty of Place”

Professors Shun Kanda and James Wescoat talked about their intervention in the tsunami hardest hit town of Minami-Sanriku in Japan. An intervention, MIT Japan 3/11, was created right after the disastrous tsunami that hit Japan in March this year. The images of the damage formed the collage of our news images for many days and many posts on Facebook read, ‘God Save Japan’. The presentation titled, “Beauty of Place: An Overnight Tragedy” described how overwhelming the task was. MIT collaborated with two universities in Japan, Miyagi University and Keio University. Continue reading

Event // Profs. Wescoat + Kanda in Fall ACT lecture series

Mark your calendars!  Professors James Wescoat and Shun Kanda will be speaking on November 14th at MIT about the Japan 3/11 Initiative in the Institute’s Art, Culture, and Technology fall lecture series entitled “Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions – Creative Responses to Conflict & Crisis.”  Collaborator Jegen Vincent de Paul will act as respondent.

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