Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s second online Commencement • 2021

Watch the Invitation Animation.

Watch the Opening & Title video.

Watch the Degree Conferral video.

Watch the 60-minute Ceremony webcast.

With the global pandemic continuing, and hybrid learning models in place for the 2020-2021 school year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology opted to have Commencement online for a second year, streaming the ceremony on June 4, 2021 to 55,000 people around the world. The Office of Institute Events invited us back to collaborate on this event, following the success of the 2020 version.

We shaped an engaging program that included a 3D Animated Invitation that transformed the Dome of Killian Court into a sort of circular Rubik’s Cube. We managed and directed the remote capture of eight presenters, including Keynote speaker Bryan Stevenson, sending tech support kits with lights and webcams and custom backdrops to each to elevate their look after a year of Zooming into personal living rooms, We created a greeting from Antarctica from a new doctoral candidate and a number of his penguin friends. And our 3D animation, to accompany President Rafael Reif’s remote conferring of degrees to 3,400 recipients, transformed the Dome into a launch tube from which the Mars Ingenuity copter, a solar-powered drone, and a Leonardo da Vinci aerial screw lifted degree-appropriate mortar boards to fly across the Charles River and off to the virtual heads of the graduates around the globe.

President Reif wrote, “Watching last week’s virtual Commencement ceremony, I felt extraordinarily proud of the sendoff we were giving the Class of 2021, and deeply grateful to those whose hard work and dedication made it so special. Thank you for your time, energy, creativity and commitment to our community. While all of us wish we could have celebrated together in person, you gave our graduates and their families an experience they will never forget.”

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Online Graduation & Awards Ceremonies • 2021

Watch the Acknowledgement of Native Lands.

Watch the Graduation Opening video.

Watch the Awards Ceremony Opening video.

Play the Public Health Trivia game.

Watch the Ceremony webcast.

The global pandemic’s impacts on Harvard’s School of Public Health continued throughout the 2020–2021 academic year, with an essentially empty campus and nearly all classes online. We were asked to created two webcast year-end events: an Awards ceremony, and a more formal Graduation ceremony.

For the former, we designed a remote-captured version of the school’s traditional in-person ceremony opening: a recitation by current students of the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is inscribed on the outer walls of the main campus building. The video is spoken and shown in 11 languages, reflecting the diverse global student body that the Harvard Chan School draws to Boston. This event was webcast on May 26, 2021.

For the Graduation ceremony streamed the following day, we did a socially-distanced video recording of the brass ensemble who have played at in-person Graduation events for many years, creating Prelude and Recessional video containers spiced with congratulatory messages from luminaries such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. To enliven the online experience for attendees, we created an opt-in interactive Public Health Trivia game accessible before and after the ceremony webcast. And we produced as short Acknowledgement of Native Lands video that played before the ceremony began. An Opening video then captured the year’s many challenges and the Harvard Chan School’s remarkable responses to them in dense and elegant motion graphics combined with live action video comments.

Dean Michelle Williams post event comments: “Thank you and your team for your hard work, dedication, and creativity in ensuring this year’s Harvard Chan Graduation was a success. Your efforts and…the terrific recording reflected both the accomplishments of our impressive graduates and our excitement to support their future endeavors. On behalf of our graduates and our entire community, thank you once again for your wonderful work! Your expertise was invaluable and we couldn’t be more pleased with the result.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s first online Commencement • 2020

Watch the 60-second Invitation Anagram.

Watch the 30-second Brass Rat Turning video.

Watch the 60-second Degree Conferral video.

Watch the 60-minute Ceremony webcast.

A global audience of more than 85 thousand logged in to watch Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s first-ever online Commencement ceremony on May 20, 2020. Webcasting its graduation festivities from Killian Court in Cambridge Massachusetts was a long-standing habit, but the Institute had never had to forego the in-person event until COVID-19 sent the entire student body home in spring 2020. In this context, the Office of Institute Events, our long-time client and collaborator, asked us to help shape and produce an hour-long online event. Keynote speaker Admiral William McRaven, sequestered in Austin, Texas, remained committed to participating, as did MIT President Rafael Reif, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart, Graduate Student leader Peter Su, and Undergraduate Student leader Nwanacho Nwana, as well as 7 other speakers, all sequestered in different cities around the US.

Our creative direction and production input included shaping and pacing the event flow; scripting and remarks editing; designing and producing an animated Anagram Invitation that went to MIT’s global community of 140 thousand; an animated Ceremony Title Anagram sequence; connector videos we dubbed Intro–stitials to introduce each of the speakers; a video to accompany the iconic moment for seniors when they turn their Brass Rat school rings; a playful Degree Conferral animation in which the President “launched” degrees out of the top of MIT’s dome to the graduates; and a crowd-sourced production of two School Songs.

We also managed the Video Capture for the dozen speakers—some live, some pre-recorded—designing iconic Backdrops and creatingTech Kits sent to all of the sequestered speakers, connecting their presentations visually and optimizing the quality of their audio and video. And we captured drone footage of the empty campus (used in a pre-ceremony webcast) as well as a unique drone shot down the entire length of MIT’s famous Infinite Corridor that became the background for the Video Scroll of 3500 graduates names that concluded the ceremony.

Following the webcast, President Rafael Reif wrote: “Today’s graduation production was absolutely excellent. It was entertaining, well-paced, fun, moving at times, truly terrific. I cannot imagine a better virtual Commencement. I congratulate you and I thank you. You made MIT look tremendously good today.”.

It’s Great To Have You Here (Although You’re There) • Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s online President’s Welcome Convocation for Undergraduates • 2020

Watch the 2-minute animated Opening Video.

Watch the 10-second Introduction for President Rafael Reif.

Watch the whole 45-minute Convideocation.

On August 31, 2020, operating under a reconfigured academic plan for the 2020-2021 school year that reflected the deep impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts Institute of Technology webcast its second major online event of the year: a video Welcome to Undergraduates from the President and other Institute leaders. Plans to allow appropriate social distancing across all Institute operations meant that only 25% of students were able to be on campus for the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year.

MIT’s Institute Events team invited us to help shape an online Welcome Convocation for Undergraduates to replace their usual in-person gathering for first year students and families. The resulting program was produced over a 5-week period. We titled the 45-minute webcast Together Everywhere: An MIT Convideocation. In addition to designing animated introductions for speakers, we wrote and produced an original song—It's Great To Have You Here (Although You're There)—featured as the soundtrack for the video opener.

PPE for Antonio López García's "DAY" • A guerrilla installation at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts • 2020

On March 22, 2020, the 2nd day of Spring, my nephew Gabriel Fancher and I—sequestered by the COVID-19 pandemic—decided to enliven the public sphere with a topical guerrilla art installation at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Using colored cling wrap supplies left over from my Fall 2019 wRock wRap installation at the Boston Children’s Museum, we fabricated a surgical mask sized for one of the pair of bronze heads—“Day” and “Night” by Antonio López García, installed at the MFA in 2008—and headed out to the Fenway to create PPE for Antonio López Garcia's "DAY" and help to prevent the spread of the virus.

The project generated press notice (see links below), resonating with arts writers and curators alike. In their Boston Arts Review article “Artists Are Essential Workers: Considering the Role of Art in Public Health,” Amy Halliday and Rebekah E. Moore described this “ephemeral gesture” as “simultaneously playful, provocative, and deeply serious,” and a “powerful example of the intersection of art and public health.”

Press links:

Boston Art Review

WBUR ARTery

Boston Globe

Wonderland

wRock wRap • A temporary art installation • 2019

wRock wRap was a playful temporary transformation of the iconic giant white marble rocks that sit between Boston Children’s Museum and the Fort Point Channel along the Boston Harborwalk. The rocks are part of The Smith Family Waterfront Park, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, 2004–2007, and range in size between 8 and 12 feet high. The 4 largest rocks of this bit of inspired landscaping took on colorful hues for 10 days, using transparent industrial cling wrap applied in continuous layered spirals by a team of 7 volunteers who joined Peter Agoos for the day. This colorizing was a completely non-invasive and reversible process that, at the conclusion of the exhibit period, allowed the rocks to return to their usual state.

wRock wRap was on view for the Fort Point Open Studios 2019 weekend (October 18–20) and the Boston Children’s Museum’s CreatedBy Festival (October 25–26). The work was made possible through the support of The Boston Children’s Museum, a grant from the Fort Point Channel Operations Board with funds from the Chapter 91 Waterways Regulations License #11419 for Russia Wharf (now Atlantic Wharf), and an in-kind donation from Uline.

Many thanks to the installation crew: David Forshee, Christine Vaillancourt, Diane Fiedler, Ian Agoos, Julie Agoos, Wick Sloane, and Betsy Sloane. Thanks also to my BCM champions: Faith Johnson, Ivy Bardaglio, Melissa Higgins, Kate Marciniec, and Linda Markarian. And appreciation to Abby Derkson at Uline for saying “yes,” and to Mike Reeve for the essential ladder loan.

Seat Light Control Bench (SLCB) • Re-imagining the Technology of the Urban Streetscape  •  2014–2018

To see the installation in a minute, click HERE

A winner of the Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics first Public Space Invitational competition, The Street Light Control Bench design transforms the ubiquitous lighting control boxes found littering sidewalks in every urban streetscape on the planet into an elegant bench.

The UL-listed enclosure, which houses the control equipment in a new horizontal orientation, is matched to the bases of existing boxes, making the replacement installation simple: disconnect the wiring to the old equipment; unbolt the old box and remove it; bolt the SLCB onto the base; connect the wiring; switch it on.

The access door to the SLCB doubles as a 30” x 6’ bench surface. In free-standing installations the bench can accommodate 6–8 sitters using both sides. Gas-filled struts allow the seat to be raised and locked open, and the pivoting bracket holding the control equipment to be raised to a vertical position for maintenance.

The prototype bench was championed by the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, funded by a grant from the City of Boston, and produced in consultation with the Boston Public Works Street Lighting Department. After a trial installation in 2017 near the Tufts Medical Center Boston, the SLCB prototype was relocated in 2018 to a permanent home next to the 1729 Old South Meeting House, on the Freedom Trail near the Old State House and Boston City Hall.

War Stories Peace Stories: Peace Conflict & The Media • A Symposium held at The New York Times Center, New York, NY • 2018

On April 11, 2018 journalists, editors, and peacebuilders gathered to explore some fundamental realities of the way war is energetically reported and peace often is not. Presenters and panelists included Sebastian Junger, Alexis Okeowo, Robert J. Rosenthal, Zainab Salbi, and many others. Panels explored questions such as: Does covering violence beget more violence? Can peace be a good story? At what cost do we report the dramatic story?

There are other stories just outside our field of view—stories of extraordinary resilience, of local or quiet heroes, of communities pushing back effectively in nonviolent ways. The stories we sell and tell have extraordinary power to shape policy and perception. Stories can change hearts and minds—stories can end wars, bring about peace and save lives. A good story can change the world.

War Stories Peace Stories was the created by Jamil Simon of Spectrum Media in collaboration with Peace Direct, Pulitzer Center, Peter Agoos, Mari Badger, Donna DeAngelis, Elizabeth Bartle, and many advisors and partners.

[Photos by @samhollenshead]

Moving Day!  •  Centennial celebration for MIT  •  2016

To see the events in 90 seconds, click HERE

Our team produced a day of celebrations marking the 100th year since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology moved from its original campus in Boston to a new one in Cambridge. Our responsibilities included Creative Direction of the events as well as every aspect of Production, working in close collaboration with MIT's Office of Institute Events, the faculty steering committee, and dozens of MIT staff across multiple departments. The events involved 18 months of planning, a daytime design competition river crossing event with hundreds of MIT community participants, and a spectacular nighttime Pageant featuring 200+ student performers.

[First photo © Keith Viglione / 617 Images]

Phylogenetic Mobile  •  Permanent display at The Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA  •  2010

The Broad Insitute is a world-renowned genome research institute based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The publicly-accessible lobby of its Kendall Square headquarters—dubbed The DNAtrium—serves as a science-in-action gallery/museum, including real-time displays of sequencing data being generated by the Institute's labs and other educational content. Our commission to enhance the displays resulted in two major installations: Phylogenetic Mobile, a 17’ x 8’ hanging artwork displaying the genetic relationships between the first 30 mammals whose genomes were fully sequenced, and an interactive display combining digital Microsoft Surface tables and rfid-tagged physical artifacts. Displayed and stored in custom furniture, these objects— when placed onto the Surface screens—access a deep database of information and images.

To see a short video about the piece produced by the Broad, click HERE

This work was done in collaboration with Diane Fiedler and Bang Wong, Creative Director of the Broad at the time.

[Fifth photo by Len Rubinstein Photography]

Female Faces in Sustainable Places: Malaysian Women Promoting Sustainable Development  •  Exhibit at The Wolk Gallery, MIT  •  2015

This exhibit design project featuring artifacts and photographs celebrated women engaged in sustainable development work in Malaysia. Working at the highest levels of government and in the private sector, female leaders and managers are defining what sustainability means. And at the local level, “unsung heroines” of all kinds—social entrepreneurs, village leaders, heads of NGOs and elected officials—are leading efforts to implement sustainability. The featured women are part of a five-year partnership between the Universiti Teknologi of Malaysia and Massachusetts Insitute of Technology's Sustainable Cities Program. Photojournalist Leslie Tuttle provided the images and artifacts and curated the exhibition.

Boston Children’s Museum Centennial  •  Programmed lighting installation for BCM's Centennial weekend events  •  2013

Agoos D-zines provided Creative Direction, Staging Design, and Project Management for several aspects of the capstone weekend of a year of Centennial celebrations, which included a performance by the several hundred-strong Boston Children's Chorus and a major exterior installation of fixed and robotic lighting on and around the Museum building (the celebrations also featured a giant birthday cake replica of the Museum). The lighting installation was visible from many vantage points in nearby downtown and the Seaport District, from Boston's Harborwalk, from 3 adjacent bridges, and to attendees at a Gala event across the water of the Fort Point Channel.

[First photo by Clive Grainger]

Tropical Fort Point  •  A temporary art installation in Boston’s Fort Point Channel  •  2014

Climate change is among the most pressing issues we face, and was the inspiration for this piece, which imagined the impacts of sea level rise and the northern march of climate zones—a tongue-in-cheek preview of tropical flora moving into temperate New England and the cityscape awash in sea water. The installation was a big hit, garnering praise from Boston Magazine—"a local visionary"—and included in Food & Wine's list "7 Powerful Pieces of Public Art You Should See Right Now." The 4x4 grid of 10'-tall Majesty Palms was moored to allow the plants to rise and fall with Boston's 10' tides, and the spaces between were quickly adopted by the dragon boat crews training in Fort Point Channel as ad hoc racing lanes.

Tropical Fort Point was made possible through the generous support of Friends of Fort Point Channel, a nonprofit organization committed to making the Fort Point Channel an exciting and welcoming destination for all of Boston’s residents, workforce and visitors. Friends of Fort Point Channel has partnered with The Fort Point Arts Community since 2005 to activate the Fort Point Channel with temporary displays of public art.

Additional support for Tropical Fort Point was provided by a grant from the Fort Point Channel Operations Board with funds from the Chapter 91 Waterways Regulations License #11419 for Russia Wharf, now Atlantic Wharf. The Fort Point Channel Operations Board is made up of representatives from the City of Boston, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and the Fort Point Channel Abutters Group, who oversee the implementation of public benefits required from private development along the Fort Point Channel.

[First 2 photos by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano. Last 4 photos by Penny Fekany.]

MIT+150  •  Sesquicentennial convocation for MIT  •  2011

For a 2-minute event montage, click HERE

Our team produced a community gathering for 8000 alumni, faculty, staff and students, marking 150 years since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was founded in 1861. The event was staged at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on the anniversary of the signing of the original Charter. An academic procession flowed down parallel staircases onto a 220'-wide stage holding 350 student musicians—African drummers, a full orchestra, a jazz improv group performing a specially commissioned piece—in front of a 100'-wide video screen in constant motion. The live-streamed event culminated in a ceremonial digital re-signing of the Charter on an iPad.

[Photos by Dominick Reuter]

Yale >> Tomorrow  •  Concluding Event for Yale University’s $3.8 billion Capital Campaign  •  2011

We designed the staging for this high-level donor event which marked the successful conclusion of Yale University's largest-ever capital campaign. The event—on the concert stage of Sprague Hall at Yale's School of Music—capped a 3-year national tour of similar events, staged in museums, theaters, and other venues around the US. The design combined story-telling video projection floating above free-standing scene-setting video wall columns, with live Yale alumni performers, including Yale-trained future oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o. The event was produced by Edwards + Co.

[First photo by Bill Cates/Event tech]

C is for Clamp  •  An art installation for the Boston Children’s Museum  •  2013 – 2019

This installation was part of An Alphabet of Inspiration: Artists Celebrate 100 Years of Collections, a feature of Boston Children’s Museum’s 100th Anniversary Celebration year. Two dozen guest curators—artists, designers, teams, and community partners—were invited to create an interior display window installation throughout the museum building on Boston's Fort Point Channel. Guest curators were asked to develop concepts incorporating a letter of the alphabet and highlighting objects from BCM’s extensive natural history, cultural, and historical collections.

Peter Agoos and Diane Fiedler partnered to submit a natural history concept, using the museum's large collection of eggshells. The submission was proposed to use for any of several letters: G is for Gently; O is for Ovum; E is for Egg; S is for Shell; etc. The curator asked us to use the letter C, and we installed C is for Clamp in a display window on the first floor, where it remained on view for 6 years.

Arts Imbalance  •  A temporary art installation above Boston’s Fort Point Channel  •  2012

Selected as the Fort Point Arts Community's 2012 Floating Art installation, this piece highlighted the precarious position of the area's several hundred artists facing the pressure of major redevelopment. A pair of larger-than-life-size figures—based on a classic articulated artist’s manikin and made from aluminum sheet skinned with refractive dichroic film—counterbalanced on a 320’ yellow rope strung between 2 bridge superstructures. The projected reflected close collaboration with Boston's City Engineer and Public Works Department, the Boston Art Commission, Boston Harbormaster, the US Coast Guard, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Funding came from the Friends of Fort Point Channel and Chapter 91 funds paid by developers as public-interest offsets.

A neighborhood artist reported the following overheard conversation: Three children and their parents were on the bridge studying Arts Imbalance and one of the children (a boy about 8?) said to his two younger sisters: "I think a Magician made that" His older sister replied, "Really?  But not Voldemort."  To which the little boy replied, "Oh no only a a very good magician could make something like that." The little girls shook their heads, and the smallest girl said, in a tiny and awed voice, "A very very good magician, who loves children and wants them to see magic."

[Photos 9, 10 & 11 by Raber Umphenour.]

Small House  •  A small house for a small family  •  2008

This modest house replaced a dilapidated "grandmother's flat" on a rural property in central Massachusetts. Working around zoning restrictions that the replacement building not exceed the existing building's height or 640 square foot foundation, the design managed to create bedrooms for a couple and 2 young children, plus a living room, full kitchen, bath, laundry, storage, and mechanical space. An interior loft bedroom above the kitchen overlooks the living room, and cantilevering a platform at the north end of the structure created additional outdoor storage. Interior ceiling joists, paired with spacers, project through the south and west facades to create brise soleil structures. Although propane heat is installed, an airtight wood stove heats the entire house on all but the coldest New England days.

The Green Monster  •  Permanent display at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center  •  2011

This display in the lobby of BIDMC’s Shapiro Building celebrates the long partnership between the hospital and the Boston Red Sox (BIDMC is the Official Hospital of the team). An image of Fenway Parks famous Green Monster left field wall is the backdrop for a pair of authentic bleacher seats from the ballpark, illuminated signage, a running video loop, and a donation collection box housed in the giant baseball. Proceeds benefit Red Sox Nursing Scholarships, the Red Sox Scholar Program, and the Fenway First Aid Team.