The MIT Alumni Arts Exchange (AAx) is a global network of over 12,000 MIT alumni of all ages who are involved with and interested in the arts. AAx hosts a series of events throughout the year centered around a special activity, theme or holiday. The mission of AAx is to provide a gathering space, either virtual or actual, for like-minded MIT alumni to learn about arts activities on the MIT campus, and the work that their fellow alumni artists are exhibiting or performing.

Sponsored by AAx, Eric Gunther, Alberta Chu and Jeff Lieberman joined FRONTLINE's Raney Aronson at Red Star Union last November for the panel discussion, Artfully Engineering Art. Panelists introduced their work and spoke about collaboration at the intersection of art, science and technology.

Moderator:

Raney Aronson-Rath, Executive Producer for the PBS series FRONTLINE and MIT Open Doc Lab Fellow. Aronson-Rath directs the editorial development and execution of the series. With David Fanning, FRONTLINE’s creator and executive producer, Aronson oversees all phases of production and runs the daily editorial management of the series.

Panelists:

Jeff Lieberman ’00 explores the connections between the arts, sciences, education, creativity, and consciousness. He hosted ‘Time Warp’ on the Discovery Channel, reminding us how little our senses detect and understand about reality. He composes music in the duo Knolls. He shows sculptures internationally, exploring our unseen interconnectedness and interdependence.

Documentary filmmaker Alberta Chu points her camera at the processes of discovery, innovation, making and inventing. She has produced dynamic science programming for clients including Paramount, National Geographic, and the Sci-Fi Channel. Her award-winning work has been exhibited internationally at film festivals, art museums, science museums, and educational institutions.

Eric Gunther ’00 was born in New York in 1978. He studied Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at MIT, where he also worked on his Master’s Thesis in tactile composition at the MIT Media Lab. He lives in Cambridge, where he is a founding partner of the interactive art and design firm, Sosolimited. Eric makes music with the bands Knolls, Maamba, and Babystep.