[1689] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Re: [Sponge-talk] dollar bill mural
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeff Roberts)
Wed Dec 14 10:05:22 2005
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:04:20 -0500
From: Jeff Roberts <thejoker@alum.mit.edu>
To: mit-talk@mit.edu, "Sponge-Talk@mit.edu" <sponge-talk@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <439FCF14.9090300@alum.mit.edu>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
As a member of the evil planning profession I'm probably personna non
grata in this conversation, but I thought I'd throw out a couple
pseudo-historical, pseudo-spiritual considerations ...
1. Someone mentioned the dollar bill being part of "hacking history"
and that's certainly true. I'm no expert on hacking but it seems that
there are virtually no cases where hacks last forever. They are acts
of spontaneity and humor that have a limited lifespan, and then are
taken down in anticipation of the next hack that catches people's
fancy. Old hacks continue to exist in stories, and in the permanent
collection of the MIT Museum -- is that where the dollar bill belongs
now?
2. Sure the mural looks cool, but will it really have the same effect
if the cashier's office is no longer behind it? MIT decided it was
time for the cashier's office to move on to a new home -- and students
generally did not object -- so is it time for the dollar bill to find
a new home as well? Should this new lounge space start with a "blank
slate" allowing students to excercise their creativity in new ways,
giving it a character more appropriate to what the space is used for?
Anyway, that's just something to think about, I'm not really
advocating for getting rid of the mural and I'm certainly not saying
you should stop trying to save it -- I love it when students rally to
save an important part of "MIT history", especially when they don't
really know what that history is (anyone who's spent any significant
time at the MIT Archives, raise your hand) ...
Jeff
--
Drink Moxie
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