In May 2022, Stuart Kestenbaum and Neil Gershenfeld were interviewed by Galen Koch to discuss the origin story of the Haystack Fab Lab.
Click on the play button above to listen to the full interview between Stuart Kestenbaum and Neil Gershenfeld.
Haystack & MIT
Timeline
1999 – Kestenbaum is introduced to Mitch Resnick, head of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group of the Media Lab at MIT.
2002 – MIT & Haystack collaborate to run a symposium, Digital Dialogues: Technology and the Hand, convening 60 artists, scientists, thinkers, designers, and educators for a studio-based symposium.
A series of lectures served as catalysts for 3 days of 24-hour studio access and an invitation for
hands-on dialogue exploring the interplay of tacit knowledge embodied in our hands, and the mutable digits of computational technology that interrogate the intersections of the physical and digital worlds. Diane Willow, multi-modal artist and currently Professor of Interdisciplinary Art and Participatory Culture at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, played a pivotal role in developing and co-curating the symposium, introducing Stuart Kestenbaum and Neil Gershenfeld, founder and director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. Her role, as Artist in Residence and Researcher at the MIT Media Lab at that time, was essential in creating this partnership. For the symposium, Stuart selected a third of the participating group from the extended Haystack community, Diane selected a third from the MIT Media Lab and extended MIT community, and together Stuart and Diane selected the final third–the wild card catalysts for these studio-based dialogues. Willow led the process of bringing active research technologies from MIT to seed digital technologies within the material-based studios at Haystack. Each was activated with a creative pairing of an artist engaged in material transformations and a researcher exploring the emerging potential of digital technologies. Together they hosted active studio explorations and expansive, playful opportunities to experience one another's ways of knowing.
2009 – Haystack develops and runs a conference, Making: Past, Present, and Future, to investigate how artists’ work was evolving with technology. Gershenfeld is an invited speaker and brings digital fabrication technology to the campus.
2010 – Gershenfeld is invited back to Haystack as a visiting scientist for two weeks, this time bringing up a mini-Fab Lab setup and continuing to explore the relationship between digital fabrication and artists’ work.
2011 – Haystack constructs a dedicated Fab Lab studio building adjacent to the visiting artist cabin on campus and begins offering access to workshop participants and faculty.
2013 – Haystack moves Fab Lab equipment to the Center for Community Programming in Deer Isle village during the offseason and begins running community workshops for local teachers and students.
2016 — Haystack’s Fab Lab is recognized with the Distinguished Educators Award from the James Renwick Alliance, for pioneering contributions to craft education.
2018 — Haystack launches a paid, high school internship program for local teens to gain job training design experience working in the Fab Lab.
2019 — Haystack hires the first dedicated Technology Director, James Rutter, to oversee and direct the program and develop increased educational initiatives and outreach efforts.
2020 — The Haystack Fab Lab responds to the pandemic by producing over 6,000 items of personal protective equipment- donated to over 100 organizations in our community.
2021 — Haystack Labs convenes for the first time, an experimental program that brings together leaders in the field of technology and craft to explore and innovate.