Gaze to the Stars

2025

This project turns the MIT Great Dome into a storytelling vessel, projecting encoded personal narratives within close-ups of participants' eyes.

What if public buildings could share our dreams, and reveal our intimate expressions of struggle and triumph? Inspired by the motto "per ardua ad astra"—"through difficulties to the stars"—this public art project transforms the MIT Great Dome into a living canvas, reflecting the resilience and aspirations of those who are shaping, or have been shaped by, the MIT experience. The project challenges conventional notions of success, instead emphasizing resilience, vulnerability, and the often-unspoken narratives of failure and transformation. By creating a mosaic of gazes—multiple perspectives coming together in a form of civic sharing, could this art project reclaim the gaze as the site not of control, but of vulnerability, care and empathy? Gaze to the Stars Website

To begin with, we designed an immersive pod equipped with AI (LLMs and computer vision) to capture the unique eye movements, and personal stories—the dreams, aspirations and struggles—of 200 volunteers. The pod experience was designed to be both mindful and therapeutic, fostering a space where participants might open up and share their personal stories. Much like the confessional, where the Catholics confess their sins to a priest hidden behind a screen, or like the psychoanalyst’s couch, where patients reveal their unconscious desires, the sensory pod becomes an intimate space for storytelling.

The pod invites participants to share their aspirations and fears. The interaction unfolds as a conversation. It begins with participants listening to the voices and stories of others, immersing themselves in their worlds. The pod then gently coaxes them with initial questions, such as: “What are you longing for?” or “What do you dream of becoming?” The pod responds to participants’ answers, offering feedback and asking follow-up questions to draw them ever deeper into their reflections.

On 12-13-14 March 2025, these eyes and their stories, projected onto the MIT Great Dome, transformed it into a space of empathy and shared experience—one that inspires the public to reflect and reconsider their own place within a larger, evolving universe.

Summaries of these stories are encoded within their irises and can be decoded in real time via the livestream on the project’s website. This installation reclaims gazing as an act of care, fostering connection, resilience, and empathy. This project contributes to ongoing discussions about the ethics of emotional and story collection, and the potential role of computational design and AI in fostering self-awareness and emotional reflection.