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Our thanks to you all, but special gratitude to Theresa Smith for helping to track you down! Likewise, we are in debt to Brian Liebowitz, Terri Iuzzolino Matsakis, Stephen Eschenbach, Christopher Pentacoff, and other anonymous consultants who helped polish this imperfect (still!) collection a bit more. There are a myriad of individuals who generously granted permission to reprint their photographs. There are many to acknowledge, beginning with the MIT hacking community, which is due incredible heartfelt thanks for pushing the limits and making everyone’s experience of MIT memorable. In this special year for MIT, the 150th anniversary of the Institute’s founding, I commend this irreverent guide to all who wish to know something of the essence of MIT. In museum-speak the word “ephemera” is often used to categorize inconsequential materials MIT hacks are ephemeral but these fragile constructs are arguably the best record of MIT’s soul and student experience for the past half-century. We get to care for world-class collections at the MIT Museum, but the hacks collection presents some of the most interesting curatorial challenges and enriching conversations to be found at any museum in the world. I cannot say for sure, but I suspect it was at least a bit intriguing to my future colleagues when I began my cover letter with the statement that it was 529,894 Smoots from my Virginia office at NASA to the MIT Museum.
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That day would come in 1999 when I became the first curator of science and technology for the MIT Museum. More than a quartercentury later, we both still love to tell the story of what suddenly emerged on the field midway through the second quarter! In my wildest imagination back then, I could not have predicted that one day I would be the keeper of that famous hack. My dad had been part of the Harvard Band, so this was to be an afternoon of father–daughter bonding. I was a junior at Wellesley College and my father and I were attending the big game.
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… 181 Because It’s There: The Best of the Restâ.… 170 Student Leaders at MIT Claim Harvard as Colonyâ.… 166 When MIT Won the Harvard–Yale Game: Hacking Harvardâ.… 164 “Please Wait to Be Served”: The Performance Hacksâ.… 161 Teaching a Nation to Make Snow: Hoax Hacksâ.… 156 Worth a Thousand Words: Hacks Fit to Printâ.… 154 Why Sleep through a Class When You Can Hack It?â.… 152 Object Lessons: Hacks in the Classroomâ.… 146 The Case of the Disappearing President’s Officeâ.… 142 Beyond Recognition: Commemoration Hacksâ.… 140 Recalculating the Infinite Corridorâ.… 128 The Numbers Game: Hackers Reinvent Measurementâ.… 120 A Sign of the Times: Hacking with Signs and Bannersâ.… 112 Campus Commentary: Hacks as Policy Protests (plus a few complaints and humorous shout-outs)â.… 110įorm + Function = Hack: The Architecture Hacksâ.… 93 “All Mondays Should Be So Beautiful”: The Art of Hacking Artâ.… 78 Making an Entrance: The Lobby 7 Hacksâ.… 74 Greener Pastures: The Green Building Hacksâ.… 56 Intriguing Hacks to Fascinate Peopleâ.… 42 Auto Industry: The Great Vehicle Hacksâ.… 8 Where No Cow Has Gone Before: Accessing the Inaccessibleâ.… 5 A Short History of the Terminologyâ.Douglas, Curator of Science and Technology, MIT Museumâ College students-Massachusetts-Cambridge- Humor.â Student activities-Massachusetts-Cambridge-History.â Massachusetts Institute of Technology-History.â ‡ “Published in association with the MIT Museum.” â.Peterson with a new essay by Eric Bender. Nightwork : a history of hacks and pranks at MIT / T.F. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peterson, T. Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the Peter de Florez Fund for Humor at MIT, through the Office of the Dean, School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Printed and bound in the United States of America. For information about special quantity discounts, please email This book was set in Minion and Helvetica Neue Condensed by the MIT Press. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
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© 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. Peterson j with a new essay by Eric Bender Night work A History of Hacks and Pranks at MITâ Published in association with the MIT Museum