But is the Institute truly a nerdy place?

The Tech surveyed the undergraduate population of MIT to settle this question. 1402 students — 31 percent of the undergraduate body — responded.

76 percent of students surveyed identified their high school stereotype as “nerd,” but are they really? 47 percent of MIT has seen every episode of Star Wars. Only 8 percent watch anime, and 12 percent read comic books/manga, but the entire school (like much of the world) seems to adore Harry Potter.

To limit the breadth of our special, we kept the scope of our survey to media related fandoms like books, television, movies, and video games. We excluded sports and music since both categories are enormous and could merit their own surveys.

We were interested in examining whether or not the stereotype of MIT as a nerd haven is true to life. In the following pages, you’ll find data from our survey, a spotlight of fandom-based groups at MIT, and an interview with a Comparative Media Studies lecturer about fandoms. Featured are members of our community who shed their Brass Rats to don costumes and become someone else — to cosplay. We spoke with a variety of students about their favorite things, and polled the average American using Mechanical Turk to reveal what their perceptions of MIT are for comparison.

So is MIT truly the home of the Nerdy? It’s up to you to see the data and decide for yourself! Please write to us with your thoughts at surveys@tech.mit.edu and may the Force be with you as you embark on the summer!

—Jessica J. Pourian ’13 and Connor Kirschbaum ’13

Contributing Editors

30 percent of MIT students who responded to The Tech’s survey (427 people) have dressed up as a character from Harry Potter, Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. While many of this number are very likely casual fans who threw on a Gryffindor scarf to see the premiere of The Deathly Hallows, hidden within this statistic is a number of devoted MIT students who take costumes to the next level — cosplayers.

Participants in cosplay, which is short for “costume play,” represent fictional characters or ideas through costumes and accessories. Cosplay is a popular art at conventions and festivals.

MIT has a fair share of cosplayers in its student body. They’ve cosplayed as everything from Harry Potter and Doctor Who (the 11th!) to a variety of Pokémon (Raichu, the Eeveelutions etc.) ,to anime (Neon Genesis Evangelion is a popular choice) and video game (Team Fortress 2 and Zelda among others) characters. Some students have also dressed as superheroes (Marvel Universe) and characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Twilight Sparkle).

How can you balance the extensive process of costume-making with being a full-time student at MIT?

“It’s difficult,” laughed Michael Ahearn ’13, who has cosplayed as a number of Homestuck characters as well as the protagonist of the Playstation 3 hit Journey. “Basically if I’m working on a cosplay and it’s close to the deadline I almost perceive it as another due date along with my homework and stuff.”

Victoria Vega ’13, who has cosplayed as Zelda from The Legend of Zelda among other things, mentioned that part of her family’s hesitation about her hobby stemmed from worry over schoolwork life balance. “They are all pretty adamant about me not sewing until I graduate because they want me to pass my classes,” Vega said. But for the most part “as long as it doesn’t interfere with [my] studies,” it seems to be fine.

Vega’s parents aren’t the only ones who see cosplay as an odd use of their children’s time.

“My parents see it as a time sink,” said Helena Wang ’15, whose favorite cosplay is Zer0 from Borderlands 2, “But they bug me for pictures afterwards, so they’re supportive because they know it’s something I enjoy participating it.”

“My parents were not incredibly supportive,” Alyssa Waln ’16 (who is Ezio from the Assassin’s Creed games in the accompany photograph displayed here) said, “They thought this was a strange hobby for a kid to have.”

But Alyssa’s parents changed their mind pretty soon after college application season. A common question during MIT admissions interviews is what you do in your spare time, and Waln took the opportunity to discuss cosplay. After she received her acceptance letter Waln says she got an email from Chris Peterson in the admissions office. “He said I liked your cosplay video game stuff and I think you’ll find a place at MIT,” Waln remembers. “I showed that to my parents and they were ok with it,” she laughed.

After being into anime for a while, Arianna McQuillen ’15 discovered there is more to being a fan than just looking at artwork. “I thought [cosplay] was a promotional thing” at first, she said, “But then I realized it was people doing it in their free time.”

Most MIT students who cosplay started with the hobby while they were in high school. They discovered it through the Internet, friends, or just expanded their love of Halloween into a full-time craft.

“Junior year sucked,” recalls Waln. “I was really busy all the time, stressed out with school. Costuming was my way of de-stressing.”

Both Waln and Vega got into costuming because of their mothers. Waln’s mother taught her to sew in the 7th grade, and she’s been making her own costumes ever since.

Ahearn was introduced to the idea of cosplaying by his girlfriend: “I was sort of leery of the concept as being an extreme introvert,” he said, but a friend who was also into the hobby encouraged him. “It was clear a lot of fun things happened at cons. It sounded extremely scary, but also a lot of fun.”

What’s the most popular destination for your average MIT cosplayer? The local conventions are where most of them start — PAX East and Anime Boston, which are both held in Boston in the spring. Waln has ventured to Fanime in San Joe, McQuillen to Otakon in Baltimore, Wang to New York Comic-Con.

“Anime conventions are interesting because they are technically anime conventions but if you’re in costume … it’s not limited to just anime. It’s a lot more broad than the name would suggest,” Waln said.

While costumes aren’t required for con attendance, once you cosplay once it’s difficult to go back to normal attire, the cosplayers said.

“It feels kind of weird to be at one of these conventions and NOT be in costume,” Brian Chan ’02, an instructor at the MIT Hobby Shop, said.

With thousands of fictional characters to choose from, cosplayers tend to gravitate towards their favorite characters, and those who would be fun to act out.

“I choose from things I’m really invested in because that will probably transfer over to the costume,” said Waln, who adored the Assassin’s Creed games. “Doing costumes take a really long time, and you have to want to be making it.”

Wang also chooses her costumes based on how comfortable she feels playing a character for a long period of time.

“While I’d be able to pull off a Sailor Scout costume based on looks,” Wang said, “I’d much rather walk around as Surge [from X-Men] because I’m more comfortable with the character, fandom, and outfit.”

“I generally like to pick something I already have the hair for,” added Waln, “I can’t stand wearing wigs, they itch SO BAD.”

Sometimes physical appearance can act as a barrier — “There aren’t that many fictional characters of color,” said Jacobs, who is planning to do a Storm (from X-Men) costume soon. “I’ve stayed away from too many human characters because of that. Pokémon are safe because there’s no ‘you’re not accurate because you’re black.’”

Jacobs says that she hasn’t personally had any of these types of experiences since she’s avoided dressing in a way that could put her in that position. “I’ve seen it happen to other cosplayers online,” she said.

Wang is aware of this issue as well, and is planning for her next costume to be a Daft Punk / Tron Legacy crossover. “I’m going to continue cosplaying androgynous/desexualized/masked characters; there’s a different convention experience under the helmet.”

Others are fans of gijinka, a cosplay style where you anthropomorphize a character and represent it without actually being the character.

“You can’t dress up as Pokémon without suits, and that’s a whole different world,” said Vega, whose Glaceon outfit was an example of gijinka.

Gijinka can make it easy to go in a group. Jacobs, Vega, and Arianna all dressed as Eeveelutions when attending Anime Boston.

“I like to costume in groups,” Jacobs said. “That’s why Pokémon is usually a good idea, there are lots of options for everybody.” Jacobs has also cosplayed in a group as Twilight Sparkle (from My Little Pony).

“Cosplaying alone is awkward,” she said, “especially on the T. If you’re by yourself, people start staring.”

Cosplayers typically plan the costumes for a convention far in advance of the event. Designing a costume can take anywhere from a week to six months to a year.

The worst night? The cosplayers all agree — right before the con.

“Most of the work is done the night before,” said Paula Jacobs ’13.

“I was practically tooling to get the Journey costume done,” Ahearn mused. “It’s Parkinson’s Law — work expands to fill the time to allot its completion.”

Creating a costume isn’t cheap, either. Cost for a single character can range drastically. Some costumes can be assembled for free from the right selection of items from a cosplayer’s current closet and a good touch of makeup, while the price of materials for others can be extremely expensive.

Vega compared the “work/sleep/friends” question students often struggle with to a typical crafting problem that cosplayers face.

“You can have it cheap, you can have it well made, or you can have it now,” she said. The three factors need to be taken into consideration when designing a costume.

Waln’s Ezio costume cost her $200 and six months of work. Chan said that most of his costumes are a few hundred dollars, “if [he] budgets well.” Chan saves money by reusing materials — his Iron Man costume has parts that are made from soda cans and scraps from the Hobby Shop.

You can find costume parts in surprising places, said a number of the cosplayers. Thrift shops are an excellent resource, as are dollar stores and office supply stores. The Internet serves as an excellent resource for ideas.

“The Internet is awesome for tutorials. Chances are, if you want to make something, someone else has already made something a lot like it.” Vega said.

“Everyday office supplies,” can be incredibly useful said Waln. She made the hidden blades for her Ezio costume out of “paper, popsicle sticks, a little bit of epoxy putty, rubber bands, and paper clips.”

Other skills can play a role in saving money for a costume. “If you put a lot of care into painting things, you can get a pretty good result,” said Vega. “Little things go a long way.”

Unsurprisingly, the primary tool of choice for cosplayers is a sewing machine. Whether it’s their mother’s machine or one that belongs to the dorm, the classic item is still the best way to make costumes.

But fabric and fortunate finds in the dollar store aren’t the only thing you need to cosplay — sometimes more expensive materials are needed.

“Different materials you have to deal with in different ways,” said Waln. She rotated between foam, plastics, wood, and a variety of other methods to complete her Ezio costume.

One of the delights of cosplaying working through design difficulties. How can you hide things effectively within a costume? What’s the best way to make a prop?

“Cosplay is an engineering problem,” Ahearn said.

In that vein, MIT offers a number of resources that can be helpful to students looking to cosplay. The waterjet and laser cutters scattered across campus (though they require the proper safety training!) are tools that can be used to make authentic costumes. As for workspaces, the MIT Hobby Shop has classes where students can learn metal and wood working, and MITERS offers an EE lab. Trying to craft a costume alone in a dormitory can be difficult.

“I’ve definitely upset the members of my common area before,” said Vega, who lives in Random Hall. “If I have balls of yarn flying everywhere” it’s not appreciated.

Waln explained that the hidden blades for the Ezio costume were one of the most difficult things to pull off, especially considering the constraints against weapons when going to conventions. It “went through ten, fifteen different iterations trying to make it work correctly” (the blades were meant to be mobile).

“That was a lot of fun actually. It’s something I’m interested in doing here,” she said. “The idea of prototype, try it fail, try it fail, try it fail…”

For the cosplayers of MIT, costuming creatively engages their critical thinking and engineering skills.

“I want to build a thing. I love designing things,” said Waln. “At the end of the day, that’s what it is. It is designing and building things.”

If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?

Batman.

Favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game.

The Dark Knight, Firefly. I like shows that got canceled prematurely, like Firefly and Wonderfalls. They’re like, the underdogs that didn’t make it. I feel bad for them.

What was your high school stereotype?

Nerd, but not geek. I hung out with the smart kids, did well in school, and I was pretty bookish. But everyone knew that I really liked Batman. People would bring it up and joke about it, but I wouldn’t say I was a stereotypical comic book geek. I just liked the movies a lot.

What do you think is the most popular TV show at MIT?

Game of Thrones.

How often do you watch TV?

Not that often, I just watch movies. See I don’t like TV because it seems serialized, and then I have to keep up. Actually, I guess that’s not fair. I watch it over mealtime, which is the most boring answer ever. But I watch it over lunch sometimes—Scrubs or Adventure Time or something with no commercials. I hate commercials.

If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?

Yossarian (from the book Catch-22). Seems like a funny guy. I think he and I would get along; we’re both really paranoid. Sometimes I walk alone at night and I get scared. I imagine Yossarian’s the same.

Favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game.

Movie: Crash, book: The Stranger by Albert Camus, video game: Halo: Reach. I don’t watch TV.

What was your high school stereotype?

Drug dealer. No, actually, I derived my coolness factor from math competitions, so that stereotype would be, I dunno, mafia boss.

What do you think is the most popular TV show at MIT?

How I Met Your Mother.

How often do you watch TV?

I don’t watch TV willingly. Unwillingly — one episode a week. Sometimes I try to get away with half an episode, but people are persistent.

If you could melet one fictional character, who would it be?

Randy Marsh (from South Park).

Favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game.

Super Meat Boy (video game).

What was your high school stereotype?

Outgoing? I guess that’s not really a stereotype. Social butterfly. Nobody really knew me as like a geek.

What do you think is the most popular TV show at MIT?

How I Met Your Mother.

How often do you watch TV?

I’d say 2 hours a week. Okay, actually I guess 3.

If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?

Jay Gatsby.

Favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game.

Definitely Sims for PC. And Super Smash for any other console. I really like She’s the Man. And TV show, The Office.

What was your high school stereotype?

Late!

What do you think is the most popular TV show at MIT?

How I Met Your Mother. I hear everyone talk about How I Met Your Mother.

How often do you watch TV?

During the semester, probably once a month, if that, but I usually catch up over the summer.

If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?

Blair Waldorf (from Gossip Girl).

Favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game.

Suits.

What was your high school stereotype?

Not sure — probably preppy.

What do you think is the most popular TV show at MIT?

Game of Thrones.

How often do you watch TV?

4 hours a week.

If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?

Harry Potter.

Favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game.

Book: 100 Years of Solitude.

What was your high school stereotype?

I guess I was a nerd.

What do you think is the most popular TV show at MIT?

Game of Thrones.

How often do you watch TV?

Twice a week (an hour a week).

If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?

Harry Potter — just the first thing that came to mind.

Favorite movie, TV show, book, or video game.

Video game: Super Smash, movie: Lord of the Rings trilogy, book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, TV show: Everybody Hates Chris.

What was your high school stereotype?

I was known as a smart person. That’s about what I was known as.

What do you think is the most popular TV show at MIT?

I don’t even know. It could be one of a few things. I know a lot of people watch Game of Thrones, I know there are people who watch Doctor Who. It’s also changed while I’ve been here. I know people used to watch Glee. I don’t think they do that much anymore.

How often do you watch TV?

Not often. If there’s sports on I might watch a little bit. I don’t usually watch TV shows.

Favorite TV show?

I don’t really watch TV shows. I watch baseball and football games. I like sports.

Favorite movie?

I don’t go to movies. It’s been so long, I really can’t think of any.

Favorite TV show?

Currently? Borgen, a Danish series about the first female prime minister and this anime called Gargantia that’s currently streaming in the U.S. Of all time? The Wire. No question.

Favorite movie?

Central do Brasil.

What do you think of MIT’s tastes? From our survey data, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones are the most popular series, followed by Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Pokemon.

Our students are so incredibly diverse — it’s hard to generalize. I’m incredibly nerdy so all the nerdy stuff you mention above I’m into too. Well, except for Pokemon.

Favorite TV show?

Law & Order

Favorite movie?

Casablanca

Favorite book?

The Last Lone Inventor (by Evan Schwartz)

What do you think of MIT’s tastes?

They’re similar to others’.

Favorite TV show?

The NBC News at 6:30

Favorite movie?

Les Enfants du Paradis

Favorite book?

For the Love of Physics (by Walter Lewin)

What do you think of MIT’s tastes? From our survey data, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones are the most popular series, followed by Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Pokemon.

I would never want to see any of these movies.

Enter ten professor’s offices (choose at random). That’s the average MIT taste! Come see my office or see the office of the provost!

Favorite TV show?

It depends on my mood. When I have time to watch TV, which is a bigger issue, sometimes I watch a half-hour comedy, sometimes I watch whatever’s on. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.

I guess I like watching football. I like watching Spongebob with my kids — Spongebob’s legit. It’s really good, it reminds me of the Looney Tunes cartoons when I was growing up, it has something there for everybody.

I can tell you what I don’t like. I can’t stand reality TV. But on the other hand I don’t like really artsy stuff either.

I’m actually really appreciative of pop culture. But there’s certain aspects of it I don’t like. I can’t remember the last time I went to the Kendall Square theatre, for instance. I’ve been there, but probably 12 years ago. That’s where you go to see a “film,” if you want to see something with subtitles and a beret. The movies I do watch are almost always mainstream movies.

Favorite movie?

That also depends on the genre. Favorite comedy, for a while I really liked Old School. More recently, I liked the first Hangover, and the other ones weren’t as good. I don’t get to watch a lot of movies, but it’s very random, because I have kids, so I watch Disney and Pixar movies with my kids a lot. I like Finding Nemo and Wall-E a lot. My favorite one is The Incredibles though.

Favorite book?

I read all kinds of different things, so I’m not really prone to favorites. I know I’m not being very helpful.

What do you think MIT students like?

I bet it’s the whole gamut. It’s probably as diverse as it could be.

Flourish M. Klink, a lecturer in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies (CMS) program, has built a life around fandoms. After running her own Harry Potter fansite and being on staff at Fanfiction.net, at age 13, Klink co-founded the Harry Potter fanfiction website FictionAlley with nine others. FictionAlley was “incorporated as an educational non-profit with the mission of helping people learn to write through fanfiction,” said Klink, and it was one of the first fanfiction forums on the Internet that made writing improvement a site-wide mission.

The Tech: Could you tell us a little bit [about] how you first got involved in fandom?

Flourish Klink: I was very into The X-Files when I was a kid. At the time, it was the late 90s … I think it’s fair to say that it’s the first fandom that primarily existed on the Internet. So I was a kid, I had Internet access, I spent a lot of time searching online for things I liked. I found X-Files fandom.

I realized pretty quickly that on the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog, so it didn’t matter that I was 10. As long as I had good grammar, people would talk to me, which was great. So when Harry Potter came out, I got really obsessed with it. Since I had found there was a community for The X-Files, it seemed like there must be such a thing for Harry Potter also. There wasn’t, so I made a website for it and met with the one other person who had a website about it at the time.

TT: You’re currently a lecturer in CMS, and you wrote your Master’s thesis on fandoms. Could you tell me a little about how your experience in fandom has affected your career path?

FK: So I do lecture in CMS, but that’s not really my career. Most of my work is working for a [transmedia storytelling] company called The Alchemists, for which I’m the chief participation officer, which means I take care of questions about fans and fandoms.

It’s easy to internalize this idea of The Author or what’s valid or what’s good or what’s important, and I really got caught up in that. It took me until my senior year of college to realize I was very interested in the [religion degree] I was studying, but part of why I was studying it was because I couldn’t envision a world in which I could talk about fandom and anybody would take me seriously. I had known Henry [Jenkins, former Co-Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program] from when he was doing research for his book Convergence Culture. I was one of his informants. I called him up and said “Okay, I think I might want to go to grad school,” and he said “okay, why don’t you come to grad school at MIT?” I only applied here and nowhere else, and I came, and coming here was how I met people at the Alchemists.

For that company now, I do research on different fan cultures we’re working with and I also write what is essentially fanfiction. At least, it’s not fanfiction because it’s “canonical” but I write transmedia extensions. For instance, [for] a recent CW Television show, I ran the tumblr account of one of the characters, and responded to people, and kept it populated.

TT: You wrote a Master’s thesis on the topic of how people within fandom use humorous and dramatic images and videos to criticize the original work in an accessible way. What insights have you gained into the nature of fandom because of your research?

FK: Well, I think to some degree the word fan is, I’m not sure I would say the word is a misleading one. I have spent many years of my life involved in Harry Potter fandom, and it’s certainly affected my life more than any other story, but I actually have a lot of problems with the last three books. I strongly dislike the last Harry Potter book. I got so mad when I read it. I thought it was terrible, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m involved with thinking about it, and I think it’s a really interesting series despite being something that I sort of hate in the end.

I want to keep being involved in the community and talking about it and thinking about it in different ways, and using it as a tool to think about the world around me, a way to talk to people about important issues, whatever. When you say you’re a fan, that kind of engagement isn’t included, and people don’t think of it. And that’s really about what my thesis was about. I was using to some degree the idea of humor as a way in, the idea of humor and anti-fandom as a way of saying there’s also more complex ideas that you can have. I mean yes, anti-fandom is one thing because people are anti-fans and they behave in ways a lot like fans except they hate the thing, but there’s also this whole world of gradations of feelings about it. These things have been talked about plenty in the literature on fandom, but the terms of the discussion are not built to include them. … We don’t have a word for people who are still deeply emotionally invested, but maybe not always in a positive way. And that limits the way people can think about their audiences.

TT: What directions do you see fandom going in the future?

FK: I think there’s a lot of things that have changed since fandom moved off of LiveJournal and on to Tumblr. For about 10 years, fandom was really centered about LiveJournal. Moving to Tumblr has made a lot of changes in terms of how you get involved in fandoms, and how you can build communities or not. I think that fandom has become a lot more decentralized and there’s less of an emphasis on fanfiction now than there ever has been, and more of an emphasis on GIFs, on a lot more visual stuff. GIFs get a lot more traction because you’ve got a way to propagate images a lot more easily.

In the long-term, I’m a little concerned about that, and that’s mostly because I think there’s a lot of stuff that will be lost. Tumblr is not always the most reliable service in terms of storing your [stuff]. In certain ways, a GIF can never die because if you delete it, the people who re-blogged it still have it, but where does Tumblr make their money? I don’t know. I understood how LiveJournal made its money, but I don’t know how Tumblr does, and I don’t know if it’s going to shut down, or what’s going to happen.

We’ve already seen this happen with Delicious, which used to be a center of fanfiction recommendations and fanfiction links. Delicious shut down, it was bought, and it was gutted. And now, many, many years of fanfiction links and probably the best way to find fanfiction online, gone. I don’t know what’s next, and I think it’s a mistake to think [people will] turn away from this idea of casually propagating GIFs, or whatever they’ve got, because I think it’s too exciting, it’s too great. I don’t know if in 10 years, we’ll be able to look back on it and have the same kind of record of what’s happening right now, and I don’t know whether we’ll continue to see organizations forming in the same way they used to do. Something new may come up, something new may appear, but I don’t know what that is yet.

For the full interview, check The Tech’s website.

Fandoms come in all shapes and sizes, and MIT has a smattering of several groups dedicated to different aspects of pop culture. The Tech sat with a few groups on campus to examine where fandoms fit in at the Institute. Not all groups we wished to interview were available for comment.

MIT Science Fiction Society

Members: 200–300 officially, about 0–15 attend any given meeting.

Office location: W20-473

What is it?: “We’re not fans, we just read the stuff” is one of the mottos of MITSFS. Housing the world’s largest collection of science fiction and fantasy, MITSFS has over 65,000 titles in their library (and more copies of books located off-site). They have everything from Asimov to the most recent sci-fi novels — most of the club’s money goes towards buying books.

MIT community members pay $11–15 a year for a subscription to the library, and can check out any book they like. In addition to serving as a library, MITSFS invites authors to speak. Recent guests have included John Scalzi and Charles Stross.

Popular fandoms: “In regards to fandoms, we declare ourselves not fans,” said Alex Westbrook ’13, former Skinner (president) of MITSFS. “We have novels based on a lot of fan things … people generally read what they want to read.”

Thoughts on the survey: It’d “be interesting to see if we could ask everyone [about sci-fi]” Westbrook said, “To see what percentage of MIT is actually interested in that stuff.”

Contact: mitsfs@mit.edu

The Assassin’s Guild

Members: 100–200 (“that’s counting people who don’t play very often”).

What is it?: “The Assassin’s Guild runs live action roleplay games,” said Alex Westbrook ’13, who served as the Secretary of the Exchequer (treasurer) of the Guild last year. “LARP is where people act out various roles in a set them. You pretend to be a character that’s given to you and it’s like acting, but without a script.” It is similar to a game of Dungeons and Dragons, but live action. Concerns about keeping a straight face shouldn’t deter anyone from joining, Westbrook said. “People do break character so don’t feel nervous!” she assured.

Game length varies — some are 10 days and have 60–70 players, but there are also 3-days and 1-days.

Asked if anyone cosplays for games, Westbrook replied, “Sometimes people do dress up. There’s a wide variety, some people will go extremely dressed up, some people will go in what they came from work. There’s no requirement that you dress up.”

Popular Fandoms: The Guild hosted a Harry Potter inspired game during IAP of 2011 and had a Team Fortress 2 game recently, but they mostly stick to their own storylines. However, Westbrook hinted that there are plans for a Firefly game sometime in the near future.

Contact: high-council@mit.edu

MIT Quidditch

Members: About 8.

What is it?: The Quidditch team plays Quidditch, the fictional game from Harry Potter. The game is played on a field, with players holding brooms between their legs. The snitch is a cross country runner and bludgers are dodgeballs. Except for the lack of flying, the rules are nearly the same as they are in the book.

The MIT Quidditch team is part of the International Quidditch Association, said Chinua “Chewy’ Shaw ’13, a chaser and captain of the team. The team was recognized by the ASA in fall of 2009, and has since been competing with other local schools like Harvard, Bostun University, and Tufts.

“We are kind of a lower key team,” Shaw said, “We just practice a few hours every week.” Practices are 2-3 hours each week, on Briggs Field and games occur about once a month.

Popular Fandoms: Unsurprisingly, Harry Potter is enormously popular within the team. Though most people are HP fans, “There are a couple people who aren’t but thought it’d be a crazy thing to try out,” Shaw said.

Contact: quidditch-execs@mit.edu

Anime Club

Members: Showing attendance of 30–40, over 100 Library members.

Office Location: W20-445

What is it?: The mainstay of the club is the weekly anime showings in 3-133, which are open to the MIT community. To mix it up, the club often hosts other events like a movie or karaoke night, game night, or barbecue.

The club maintains a large library that members can access for a small fee ($5 a semester for students). The library includes a large collection of manga (Japanese comic books) and DVDs of anime.

Popular Fandoms: The interests of the anime club are very diverse. “Everyone has their preference,” said James A. Duyck ’14, club president.

“It really depends on what you like already,” said Steve Powell ’14, “There’s such a diversity of different types of genres that are represented by anime.”

Though it’s difficult to suggest one anime for everyone, the club members recommended Hayao Miyazaki movies to start for the anime novice.

Thoughts on the survey: Approximately 7 percent of MIT students identified themselves as serious anime fans on our survey. “I’m not surprised,” Duyck said, “That seems about right. ”

Contact: anime-inquiry@mit.edu

CAST’S Spring Sound Series brought to us alumna Julia C. Ogrydziak ’96, a multi-everything artist. Ogrydziak exploited all the goodness MIT had to offer her, and in return, she has made the most out of what MIT gave her. While pursuing a double degree in Physics and Music, she UROPed for a couple of years in the then-called Hyperinstruments Group at the Media Lab, which focused on multi-media and performance. After that, she pursued her interest in design by getting a degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Phew.

Now based in San Francisco, Ogrydziak seems to be one of those people for whom days are 50 hours long and weeks have 10 days in them. She does not stop creating. Her talk provided a cohesive and well-narrated glimpse into her past and current doings, spanning from intimate personal photography projects to grand multi-media performances. For these, she was not only a violinist, but also a performer, a composer, and an integral part of the conception, design, production and marketing. She credited her entrepreneurial spirit to her MIT “upbringing,” and was enthusiastic in her praise of the Music Department for its invaluable peer treatment, and the support and accessibility of her professors.

Ogrydziak’s works are usually inspired and enabled by science and technology. She has a long-standing working relationship with CAPACITOR, a multidisciplinary, science-inspired collective, and is particularly interested in film as a medium. She just launched a streamlined video sharing iOS app, Moovee, and some of her artwork has paired classical music with club VJ (video jockey) technology. Ogrydziak constantly seeks ways to present her work in ways that will attract a diverse audience, and she has had the opportunity to work in spaces not originally conceived for performance — for example, her multi-media piece DARK BLUE SKY DREAM was performed at the Chabot Planetarium.

In spite of her breadth and depth, and busily creative life, Ogrydziak nonetheless retains an approachable, humble, generous, and passionate demeanor. She is an accomplished young soul, who is not afraid of embracing new technologies, and who is always on the lookout for innovative means of expression. Her talk closed with a treat: a sneak peek at Ogrydziak’s latest collaborative composition with CAPACITOR: FLOCK, which is based on the flocking behavior of birds. Hopefully, it will migrate from coast to coast because from the little taste we got, it seems like it will surely be a delightful and insightful multi-sensorial experience.

Let’s start with the pros. When I first saw trailers last year, I was offended by the choice of music. Yet, to my surprise, the music’s unexpectedness blends well with director Baz Luhrmann’s fantastical take on the story. In the elaborate party scenes, the hip-hop music by Jay-Z matches the craze, while also giving it a dimension of modernity. In another scene, a jazzy rendition of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” undoubtedly entertained the younger audience members. The best parts of the soundtrack, however, are the mash-ups of old and new. Motifs from Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” are used a few times in the film, and once it is blended with Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” The soundtrack strategically pulls in the younger audience while tying in the classics for more seasoned moviegoers.

I unfortunately didn’t prepare myself for a 3D movie and knew that it would be an unnecessary spectacle once I realized it was. Some of the more fantastical scenes benefit from the 3D aspect, but the overuse of floating crap all over the screen (confetti, snow, fireflies, etc.) gets old really fast. Luhrmann even had the audacity to have floating words on the screen. Close-ups of the actors were extremely distracting because the screen limits the frame, and 3D makes it seem like that part of the head is missing. However, a flashback to Gatsby’s past, which resembles works by Dorothea Lange, and a view of Manhattan that references Hitchcock’s Rear Window, were breathtaking. In addition, the cartoonish makeup and costumes serve to express the debauchery of the time.

Ah, the acting. Of course we could only expect overwrought, contrived performances from all the actors thanks to Luhrmann’s directing. In some scenes, the acting style matches the grandiosity of the visuals. However, the “turn around and dramatically move your gaze up to meet the camera” move was used one too many times. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Gatsby was not as aloof as I had hoped, but his spectrum of emotions sufficed. Similarly, Carey Mulligan’s Daisy was a little too frivolous for my taste, but compared to all the other Hollywood actresses who auditioned for the part (although Michelle Williams would’ve been interesting), she was a solid choice. Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan was my favorite character; he brought just the right amount of exaggeration to his performance, while still being semi-realistic. Newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker worked, while Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson did not. Finally, I didn’t hate Tobey Maguire’s Nick Carraway, but some moments were definitely meme-worthy (and not in a good way).

I did get goosebumps a few times throughout the film. When we first hear Daisy giggling amidst billowing white curtains and then see her pop up and gaze longingly at us, it is indisputably beautiful. Likewise, Gatsby throwing scarves and clothes down from his wardrobe toward Daisy was a scene that would not have been as effective without 3D. And the flashing green light was mesmerizing. Some of the iconic lines — like “I hope she’ll be a fool” and “they’re a rotten crowd, you’re worth the whole bunch” — were delivered effortlessly and did the novel justice. Sadly, the ostentatiousness of the film proved to be too much for my taste, and, while I appreciated Luhrmann’s imagination, this is not how I wanted the story to be told.

Lurhmann proved that he can put on a big show, but he can’t take credit for the story, or for the work done on the graphics. He can only take credit for the actors’ performances, which were distasteful overall. The music was a valiant effort at making the film revolutionary, but it only succeeded as a standalone soundtrack. It is understandable that he wanted to make a version of the story that is so unexpected that it would perhaps be beyond reproach. But such a great American novel should not be tampered with.

Every time I go to the Boston Opera House I am blown away. Last week, which saw the premier of Chroma, was no different. The audience was treated to three very different but complementary ballet performances: Serenade, Chroma, and Symphony in C.

The first dance, Serenade, was set to Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings in C.” It was the first ballet choreographed in America by George Balanchine, the immensely prolific and esteemed Russian choreographer who helped found the New York City Ballet. The curtains rose to reveal a stage filled with women, identically dressed in pale blue tight-fitting leotards and long, translucent skirts. Like puffs of smoke uncurling, these nebulous swathes of chiffon served to emphasize the celestial nature of the dancers.

The focus was on the female dancers, and remained so throughout the piece, as they danced in sync or in various formations, sometimes drawing our focus to an individual, and sometimes making us appreciate the collaboration between dancers. For example, in one strangely hypnotic scene, a single row of girls stood alone on stage, with their backs to the audience. On pointe, they slowly and graciously twirled the outer dancers into and through the center of the line several times, and then twirled them back out again.

In another scene, midway through Serenade, as the girls danced off-stage we saw one fall to the ground, her hair in disarray. After the slick, classical moves of the beginning, this was a jarring experience, as though something had gone terribly wrong. Thereafter, one of the male dancers, wearing a midnight blue leotard with low scoop neckline, came on stage and arched his body over the fallen dancer. Close behind him stood another woman, with her arms contorted above her, as if she were embodying his wings. Throughout the next part of the dance, there was so much tension and emotion in the dancing, it seemed the dancers were involved in a dramatic love story, but it was up to the imagination of individual audience members to decide what this story might be.

The final scene was striking and unforgettable. One female dancer, standing with her hands stretched above her head, was lifted by her ankles and held high by four male dancers. Like a banner or a trophy, she was carried down an imaginary “aisle,” which cut diagonally from the front right to the back left of the stage. On either side of this were female dancers hovering on pointe, with their arms similarly stretched above their heads and facing the same direction as the dancer borne aloft. The curtains lowered on the men walking forward, and the women lifting their eyes skyward and bending backwards, as though transcending the earth.

The second piece, Chroma, after which the triplet of pieces is named, was choreographed by Wayne McGregor. It was set to a score by Joby Talbot and featured musical arrangements by Jack White of American rock duo The White Stripes. These required more musicians than almost any other Boston Ballet performance, so musicians played from the boxes at either side of the stage, which are usually reserved for seating. As such, the music in Chroma was physically and psychologically a part of the foreground. Musicians far outnumbered dancers, and the music was so loud and powerful it rolled over us like waves, keeping us engaged and excited.

Fittingly, the set was entirely white, with a large cut-out “window” in the back wall, showing a somewhat more distant white wall. The effect was of an otherworldly, sterile environment, like the inside of a spaceship. The dancers — six male and four female — were dressed alike in square, thin-strapped chemises in subdued colors of lilac, olive, pink, or nude. With their feminine attire and gyrating moves, I sometimes mistook a male dancer for a female one, and vice versa. The dancers were highly energetic, keeping time with the music, and faintly alien-like, with indecipherable expressions that struck a balance between deadpan and severe. It was impossible to see everything at once — they danced solo, or one or two males would dance with a female dancer, but each individual, pair, or trio would tend to occupy a different part of the stage and dance simultaneously with any other. I found myself simply focusing on a body part here or there, marveling at the perfectly toned muscle, and the incredible rapidity and flawless control of its movement.

Symphony in C was the final performance, set to the eponymous symphony in four movements by Bizet, which he composed when he was 17 years old, and choreographed by the aforementioned George Balanchine in a period of just two weeks. The piece was epic in scale, with fifty-two dancers. The female dancers wore traditional ballet garb, with stiff white tutus that crowned their long slender legs, and a few wore sparkling tiaras. As in Serenade, the male dancers wore dark blue outfits, this time with slightly flounced velvet sleeves, and the stage was bare with a blue backdrop. The dancing was classical in style, and continued with the high energy of the previous performance. One scene that imprinted itself into my memory was when the female dancers fringed the stage, and the male dancers gathered in the center of the stage. Dancing with great vigor, and in exquisite synchronicity, there was a snapshot moment when they leapt high into the air — and that is how I will forever remember this piece.

It was a wonderful ending to an eventful evening. Chroma, all three parts of it, holds the attention captive and keeps the audience intrigued about what is in store for them next. It is well worth going to see.

Some people have questioned whether their favorite Avenger is Iron Man or Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man 3 seeks to unite the disparate personalities that are the cocky billionaire Tony Stark and the selfless armored hero Iron Man. It explores this theme through two hours of over-the-top action scenes and genuinely funny humor. As great as the special effects and jokes are, they leave little room for a cohesive or moving narrative. Still, I was having so much fun I barely noticed.

In Iron Man 3, Iron Man has a new suit, which is able to separate into many individual components that can each fly through the air and attach to Tony Stark. This new trick is used to great effect in the movie in a variety of interesting ways. What if Iron Man only has a couple pieces of armor? What if he wants the armor to latch onto someone else? In fact, variety is the best word to describe the movie’s many action sequences. Iron Man has to use hand-to-hand combat to fight off a cybernetic assassin, infiltrate an enemy compound sans armor, and play Superman to save people from a falling airplane.

The villains this time around include a mysterious terrorist, the head of a weapons research group, and a group of biologically enhanced humans with strength and regeneration abilities similar to the robot from Terminator 2. The large number of villains gives Tony Stark plenty of battles to fight, but it’s also interesting to see him struggle to overcome the obstacles in his own mind, as he copes with the traumatic events of The Avengers.

The movie’s humor includes a surprising amount of slapstick, and plenty of Tony Stark making jokes at other people’s expenses. I honestly can’t remember laughing out loud this much during a superhero movie. My only gripe is that the humor is so frequent that it’s difficult to feel the gravity of the more serious parts of the film. Even the darkest scenes of Iron Man 3 have a joke or two thrown in.

The movie’s plot isn’t too difficult to follow, but has several holes in it that might throw story-oriented viewers, some more serious than others. I know I wasn’t the only MIT student at the film disconcerted that Tony Stark was able to charge his technological marvel of an exosuit to 98 percent capacity off of a car battery. Nerd rage at its finest.

Considering the significant amount of lead-in content for The Avengers in the first two Iron Man films, Iron Man 3 is notable for its small number of references to the larger cinematic universe. Neither SHIELD nor Tony’s fellow Avengers appear to aid him in this film. Iron Man 3 focuses mainly on wrapping up the plotlines within its own franchise, like the relationship between Tony and Pepper Potts. It was fun to see them work together as a couple in this film, when so many other superhero films rely on romantic tension.

Iron Man 3 delivers on the action and suspense that viewers have come to expect after The Avengers. It also manages to cram in more humor than you may have thought possible for a superhero movie. The action drives the film more than the plot, but this won’t spoil the experience for most people. If, like me, the film’s ending was the last thing you wanted to see, make sure to stick around for the bonus scene after the credits roll.

In the last ten years, the UK music scene has been producing new female singer-songwriters like an exponential growth function let loose. After the great success of Ireland-native Róisín Murphy’s trip hop and dance-pop solo career in the UK, followed by Amy Winehouse’s planetary breakout and her revival of contemporary soul and jazz music, there have been few major waves of incoming sound — and look-alike female musicians. Adele and Duffy were the first ones to take and pass on Winehouse’s torch, by writing and producing similarly soulful and bluesy songs. By the end of the 2000s, a new wave of more-pop-oriented female artists brought VV Brown, Jessie J, Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), and Marina Diamandis (of Marina and the Diamonds). In the meantime, Róisín Murphy-inspired artists, such as Elly Jackson (of La Roux) and Ellie Goulding, diversified the music scene by popularizing electro-pop music.

Victoria Hesketh, otherwise known as Little Boots, is one of the latter. A self-advertised phenomenon on YouTube and MySpace, Little Boots came to prominence after her songs garnered the attention of various critics, who praised her for her refreshing twist on mainstream electronic music. The wide acknowledgement and hype escalated after the official release of her debut album Hands in 2009. While the album was a satisfying musical novelty, it lacked a smooth production, and the spark of her cool and quirky personality. Luckily, Little Boots’ new dance album Nocturnes compensates for the previous misses and brings out Hesketh’s modest uniqueness.

“Indebted to the night,” as Hesketh puts it, Nocturnes is a 50-minute album that weaves love and nightclub dance plots into heavy, Hercules-and-Love-Affair-esque beats. It might sound tawdry, but Little Boots does it well — just when the darker and rhythmically mellower tracks like “Motorway” and “Confusion” build up the album’s emotional spectrum, the album’s deep house and pop gems infuse the atmosphere with careless and sinister-yet-innocent hooks. The best of these is the track “Shake,” produced by Hesketh and Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford, which defines the “ultimate dance track” template. With the infectiously catchy lyrics “Everybody shake, la la la la la la, until your heart breaks,” “Shake” is guaranteed to shake the unshakeable.

The album openly draws influences from many other artists. “Beat” sounds like an incarnation of Kylie Minogue, “Satellite” is reminiscent of a Kate Havnevik-inspired electro fairytale, and the rest of the tracks share the common flavor of Goldfrapp, Róisín Murphy and a bit of Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Even with all these influences and previously-invented dance tunes, Little Boots still sounds as tonic and refreshing as ever. A few tracks, such as “Crescendo,” “Strangers,” and “All For You,” become somewhat repetitive and bog down the album’s progressiveness, but the overall result is still satisfying. It took her some time to move from the comfort zone of her previous album, but it seems that she has finally found her own safe haven in the music industry.

With Nocturnes, Little Boots will permanently leave her footprints on the UK music scene. The album is not as old-school and original as Róisín Murphy’s Overpowered, nor does it possess the timelessness of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, but it has enough quality to prove her superiority over overhyped Brit contemporaries, such as Ellie Goulding. Just observe carefully — when the singles from Nocturnes reach the wider mainstream audiences, the clubbing scenes will ignite and perk up worldwide.

Highlight tracks: “Shake,” “Beat Beat,” “Every Night I Say a Prayer,” “Satellite.”

Growing up as a child in a very musical and theatrical family, I developed a keen sense of distinguishing high quality shows from mediocre ones, in both visual and acoustic performing arts. Even the most nuanced distasteful details in a show can make me frown, which is why I always found it difficult to like live musicals. Whereas regular plays and musical concerts require a certain subset of performance skills, musicals require the full package: good production, acting, dancing, singing and very often a well-coordinated orchestra. With that said, I am so happy to wholeheartedly admit that I was astonished by Berklee College’s adaptation of Hair, which premiered last week at the Berklee Performance Center.

Hair tells the emotional and philanthropic story of a group of hippies (the Tribe) living an outcast life, and fighting against the oppressive political system that is conscribing young men into the armed services during the Vietnam War. The musical debuted in 1967 and very soon became a treasure of American culture, promoting love, freedom, equality and peace. Besides the pacifistic ideas, Hair is often praised for revolutionizing musical theater in the late ’60s, by giving rise to the “rock musical” genre, and by having a racially diverse cast.

Berklee College did a fantastic job of adapting the musical and conveying its cathartic ideas. After the recent tragedies and fatal loss of human lives in Boston and Cambridge, their adaptation had a particularly strong emotional and moral impact, as it reminded the audience of the importance of spreading love and peace in today’s world.

I was impressed and amazed by the students’ performances. The musical numbers were bold and resonating, the acting was convincing and amusing, and the choreography was well-structured and synchronized. The orchestra, which was hidden behind the on-stage balcony, delivered a fantastic musical performance as well; the arrangements sounded just as enthralling as the original Hair soundtrack, and they complemented the students’ versatile voices well. The show lasted for almost three hours, but the energy of the performance was unfailingly high throughout this time. The most dynamic and animated numbers of Act I, like “Be-In (Hare Krishna)” and “Hair”, were not the only numbers that maintained this energy — some of the most intimate ones, like “Frank Mills”, kept it alive by adding a flavor of charm and intimacy. Close to the end of Act I, when the Tribe was burning their draft cards and performing a soul-shaking dance, my breath stopped for a second and I was fixed in place by the performance-induced goose bumps.

Just when I thought that the show could not get any more exciting, sneaky Destiny decided to play a mischievous game with the cast and turned off the microphone of one of the performers during “White Boys” in Act II. These situations are usually tricky to handle, but the Berklee cast took advantage of their bad luck. Instead of letting the singer continue without a working microphone, one of the cast members ran on stage and gave a hand microphone to the singer, which made the performance entertainingly spontaneous and professional at the same time. The musical number ended with a standing ovation and the audience inviting the cast to repeat the number by shouting “Do it again!”

During the tear-jerking finale of the musical, “The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)”, I kept wondering what it was about these students that made me like their adaptation of Hair so much. They were fantastic actors, dancers and singers, no doubt about that — but there was something else about their performance, which energized the Berklee Performance Center that night. When they invited the audience members to the stage after the curtain call, laughing and rejoicing in the afterglow of their work, I finally realized the reason. What really made the show spectacular was the fact that the performers did not force the story — they enjoyed the show through their characters so effortlessly and sincerely that it was impossible to distance myself from those characters’ fates.

And I’m not the only one who thought so. My friend Ta, known for her talkative demeanor, went to see the show with me and sat quietly for the first 30 minutes, not saying a single word. I got worried that she was bored by the show, but just as the actors started performing the heartfelt number “Ain’t Got No”, she threw her hands in the air and smiled as widely as ever:

“Denis,” she looked at me and said, “this is so great.”

Mud is a reminder of how movies have the potential to be more than just entertainment. With a setting that is foreign to most, director Jeff Nichols tells the typical loss of innocence story through a new lens. By making Ellis (Tye Sheridan) the observer who eventually enters the world he observes, the audience is able to make the transition with him and live his adventure.

When Ellis and his best friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) venture out to an island where they find a boat lodged high up in a tree, they claim it as their own. Soon, they discover that a fugitive named Mud (Matthew McConaughey) is living in the boat, and after Mud tells them of his plan to reunite with his girlfriend Juniper, the boys decide to help get the boat into the water so he can run away with her. Drawing inspiration from Mark Twain, Nichols shows us how Ellis observes and idolizes Mud, and how a young man’s idea of what love should be is transformed. Ellis is shown observing other characters’ fights and trials through windows, which emphasizes his status as a bystander. By the end, however, he begins to take control of his destiny and to affect the destinies of those around him.

Matthew McConaughey is the perfect choice for the gritty, headstrong Mud. In fact, his understated scenes are the most riveting; he truly embodies the character. Ellis and Neckbone were also well cast. Their exchange of subtle glances in reaction to Mud’s outlandish behavior, and their native Southern accents, helped them be both convincing and lovable. A lackluster performance from Reese Witherspoon is only a slight distraction from the strong performances of other minor characters such as Tom, a retired CIA assassin played by Sam Shepard, and Ellis’s father, a weathered adult played by Ray McKinnon.

To depict the small Arkansas community he grew up in and the significance of the river that runs through it, Nichols gives us a multitude of shots of the water. The various symbolisms of the river, including that it is the source of livelihood for Ellis’s family, and that it provides a means of escape from his parents’ crumbling marriage, are expressed through the different camera angles Nichols gives us. Unfortunately, the beautifully minimalist cinematography doesn’t make up for the strange choices of music. While the instrumental music suffices to create ambience, the twangy country music feels overworked and unnatural.

Still, the message — that we should hold onto childlike idealism and resist the inevitable acceptance of cynicism and pessimism — comes through, and this message is cleverly relayed through the eyes of a teenager trying to make sense of his world. When Tom tells Ellis to stop helping Mud because Juniper is not what she seems, Ellis retorts, “they’re in love and they’re gonna make it! If you weren’t such a worn out old man you’d know it’s true.” The dialogue sometimes borders on trite, but it helps us see Nichols’ intention to show us three stages of life: the wide-eyed, bushy-tailed hope in Ellis; the unrelenting nature of Mud who eventually comes to terms with reality; and the angry, old adults, Tom and Ellis’s father, who have both been disappointed by love. The three men are each transformed by Ellis, and in the end, we realize that the fact that Ellis holds onto so dearly is not foolish, but is in fact, admirable.