A quirky fete to great ideas

January 02, 2011|Christopher Klein, Globe Correspondent

For 150 years the faculty, students, and alumni of MIT have shaped the world in which we live, endowing us with everything from modern computing to artificial intelligence to the “Smoot.’’ The constant stream of innovations flowing from the university has earned it a reputation as an “idea factory,’’ which makes a trip to the campus museum akin to a behind-the-scenes factory tour where you can watch the future being manufactured.

Unlike other university museums, there are no display cases filled with dusty test tubes or ancient fossils here; instead the MIT Museum pulsates with the intellectual and creative energy that defines the world-famous research institute. Not surprisingly for such a proudly unconventional campus, the museum is a quirky one, housing artifacts that run the spectrum from a robot modeled after a bluefin tuna to a Polaroid portrait of Lady Gaga sporting her signature claw.

On Saturday, the museum will kick off the university’s yearlong 150th birthday celebration with the opening of the “MIT 150’’ exhibition. For the vast majority of us lacking the intellectual horsepower to matriculate at the institute, “MIT 150’’ is more like “MIT 101,’’ a survey course that offers a fascinating peek at the university at work and play.

“Everywhere you turn in the exhibition there is some cool piece of history — some big, some small; some expected, some unexpected,’’ says Deborah Douglas, the museum’s curator of science and technology. “You’ll really get a sense of the impact of this institution on the nation and the world.’’

Leave it to MIT to approach its birthday party as a problem-solving exercise. To select the artifacts, artwork, and films to be part of the “MIT 150’’ exhibition, it employed a scientific principle that it has pioneered — collective intelligence.

“That was one of the most unusual features of the whole process,’’ says John Durant, museum director. “We started a conversation almost two years ago across the MIT community, from current students to alumni to faculty and staff. We got them talking through a website about what might go in the exhibit and got everyone thinking about the best way to represent this place.’’

The collaborative process yielded more than 700 nominations, then the MIT community voted to help select the 150 items on display, some of which were previously unknown even to the museum staff.

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