Nightwork: A history of hacks and pranks at MIT by T. F. Peterson MIT Press, $19.95/£13.50, ISBN 0262661373 Reviewed by Wendy M. Grossman
ON MOST American university campuses, a new building is a matter for excitement, derision and eventual acceptance.
At MIT, home to thousands of exceptionally bright, mostly male, engineers, it’s a challenge.
Take the Wiesner Building, which houses the Media Lab. Built by I. M. Pei, its facade is tiled in white, highlighted by outsize black, red, and yellow tiles. Even before the building opened a mint-green one had appeared courtesy of the “hackers”, the practical jokers…
