Mobile Information Unit

The Mobile Information Unit (MIU) is an interdisciplinary research project involving several faculty members at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Harvard Art Musuem, as well as other arts-related groups and initiatives at Harvard. The goal was to create an innovative, interactive information kiosk that would allow digital artists a means of exploring their work, while at the same time disseminating information about events centered around the arts at Harvard. As a result from a student competition hosted in a class taught by Prof. Martin Bechthold, and in collaboration with classes taught by Allen Sayegh, the winning scheme proposes a large interactive fiber-optic display on the exterior, with more targeted displays and touchscreens on the interior of a mobile structure.

Fabrication and prototyping took place at the GSD fabrication labs. The unit was first deployed on the occasion of the Harvard GSD Open House on November 7, 2008. More recently it served as a platform to exhibit students work at the April 2009 Open House.

Design Concept: Russ Gould, Jamie Hernandez, Bao Wei; Interactivity: Yen-Tine Cho; Ventilation Study: Masayosh Oka; Fabrication Team: Stephen Hickey, Jaime Hernandez, Justin Lavallee, Rachel Froman, Anthony Di Mari, Richard Juta, Sabeen Hassa, Michelle Miller, and others. Special thanks to Professors Daniel L. Schodek and Kostas Terzidis for their support and advice!