Complex brain function depends on flexibility

Color the nighttime sky on May 19

MIT students, faculty and staff are invited to come light up the Cambridge sky during the second performance of UP: The Umbrella Project on Sunday, May 19, at 7:45 p.m. at Jack Barry Field. A collaboration between the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and internationally acclaimed dance company Pilobolus, UP will bring together members of the MIT community to participate in a large-scale live performance piece using umbrellas outfitted with LED lights.

Each UP participant will be provided with an umbrella equipped with red, green and blue LED lights. Using hand controllers designed by researchers in the MIT Distributed Robotics Lab at CSAIL, participants will be able to independently change the color of their umbrella. Guided by the Pilobolus creative team, UP participants will traverse the field and manipulate the hue of their umbrellas, creating a colorful and ever-changing display of live art.

UP premiered at the PopTech Conference in Maine in October 2012, when more than 300 participants transformed a rainy sky into a sea of changing colors. This is the second collaboration between the Distributed Robotics Lab, led by CSAIL Director Daniela Rus, and Pilobolus; the two organizations first joined forces on Seraph, a performance piece involving human dancers and flying robots.

Learn more about the event