We cannot ignore the importance of space exploration, nor should we be complacent in its meaning to all of us. Humans remain fascinated by the mysteries of the universe beyond our own planet. Presenting the MIT Media Lab‘s recent launch of an initiative to explore the final frontier of space became an opportunity for AVFX Boston. Sargent Production Services produced the event and selected AVFX to supply audio visual services.

CREDIT: David Silverman Photography

Our challenge was to create an immersive audience experience while showcasing a wide range of detailed presentations.

The symposium, titled Beyond the Cradle, hosted over 300 attendees, including three astronauts, at the MIT Media Lab (and many Livestream viewers). In addition to the astronauts, the 25 speakers at the event included NASA innovation engineers, some of science fiction’s most creative minds, Hollywood imagineers, and industry leaders in “New Space.”

As Maria Zuber, MIT’s Vice President for Research and E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics said, “The limits of imagination were reserved for science fiction. But something feels different about space exploration these days. It feels more and more like going to space is a goal rather than a dream.” Astronaut Leland Melvin later agreed, “We’re turning science fiction into science fact.”

About the MIT Media Lab
The Media Lab opened the doors to its I.M. Pei-designed Wiesner Building in 1985, and in its first decade was at the vanguard of the technology that enabled the digital revolution and enhanced human expression: innovative research ranging from cognition and learning, to electronic music, to holography. In its second decade, the Lab literally took computing out of the box, embedding the bits of the digital realm with the atoms of our physical world. This led to expanded research in wearable computing, wireless “viral” communications, machines with common sense, new forms of artistic expression, and innovative approaches to how children learn.

Now, in its fourth decade, the Media Lab continues to check traditional disciplines at the door. Product designers, nanotechnologists, data-visualization experts, industry researchers, and pioneers of computer interfaces work side by side to invent—and reinvent—how humans experience, and can be aided by, technology.

Thanks to the MIT Media Lab and Sargent Production Services for selecting AVFX.

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