Sculptures of Light: From MIT to Corpus Christi

I gave a series of talks in the high desert examining bleeding-edge ideas and techniques across eras.

This conversation took place in the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve, the largest Dark Sky Certified place in the world. Natural darkness offered the perfect setting for Truly Human Technology, where I traced György Kepes' founding of MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) to the unlikely destination of Corpus Christi, Texas.

"MIT gave me a new perspective of the social and ecological horizon. I learned that to be angry or unhappy is not enough. To give reality to one's social beliefs and sense of solidarity with fellow men, a disciplined, clear interpretation of the human condition is a must." These words from Kepes capture technological capability meeting humanistic purpose.

Kepes, the Hungarian artist who collaborated with László Moholy-Nagy and authored the influential Language of Vision, founded CAVS in 1967. The program pioneered collaborative works between artists, scientists, and engineers, exploring light, kinetic sculpture, video, and holography. Over four decades, CAVS brought over 200 international fellows to MIT, creating some of the most experimental art of the late twentieth century.

Dale Eldred, a CAVS fellow and sculptor who chaired the Kansas City Art Institute's sculpture department for 33 years, became known for large-scale works that revealed natural phenomena through light. His 1980 exhibition at Corpus Christi's Art Museum of South Texas transformed Philip Johnson's Gulf Coast building into an instrument of perception through massive mirror banks. The striking white concrete museum had opened eight years earlier in 1972, and here was work from MIT's avant-garde art-science program appearing in a Texas beach city.

The lineage from Moholy-Nagy through Kepes to Eldred traces experiments in kinetic light sculpture across decades. Discussing mirror installations in Corpus Christi under Big Bend's preserved darkness created a nice symmetry. Natural light unobstructed overhead and manipulated light on the Gulf Coast both reveal things about perception. These talks formed a small constellation, connecting points where experimental work with light and movement appear in unlikely or remote places.

Connected projects: This presentation was part of a high desert art talk series I produced examining bleeding-edge ideas across eras. View more at There Goes Another Millennium, Fantastic Border, The Present Age, and Sacred Art.

Themes: Art-science synthesis, innovation and humanistic purpose, light as a medium for expanded perception, place-responsive technological art, unexpected sites of experimentation.

Images: Kepes' Glow Column / Nishan Bichajian, Boston Museum of Science 1973, Eldred's installation at the Art Museum of South Texas, 1980. The top image is a multi-story kinetic light sculpture by my father, also created in the 1980s.