sketch_261101a · Boston / Cambridge
Hello, neighbors.
In 2001, Processing began right here at the MIT Media Lab. Twenty-five years later, we’re getting together where it started.
Artists, teachers, tinkerers, first-time coders, and the just-curious. You don’t need a polished project or a particular job title. Come ask a question, show something unfinished, or see what someone else is making.
One of many community days around the world ↗Back where it started.
The first Processing Community Day was held at the MIT Media Lab in 2017. By 2019, more than 100 locally organized events had taken place across six continents.
In 2026, we’re gathering in Cambridge again for Processing’s 25th anniversary — in the building where Processing began.
A little listening.
A little making.
A lot of “how did you do that?”
Hear what people are making, what went wrong, and what they’re figuring out along the way.
15-minute talks · AtriumHands-on workshopsOpen your laptop. Ask a question. Make a happy accident with someone you just met.
90 minutes · Future SketchesThe community gallerySketches and experiments from neighbors near and far. Follow a link and get a little lost.
In the room + onlineShare an idea by October 4
You don’t need to have it all figured out. Bring what you’re working on. We’d love to make room for it.
Share somethingFirst-time presenters & remote artists welcome.
Made by all of us.
Say hello at the door. Help someone plug in.
A little of your time goes a long way.
Four decades, one visual conversation.
This site brings together several chapters of design made at the Media Lab. Each source is linked and credited here; the second image in each pair shows how that idea reappears in this site.
1985 · Color as a system
Noland’s Here-There runs through the Wiesner Building in bands of color. Jacqueline Casey translated those bands into the Media Lab’s first flexible identity; they return here as the bars that organize every page.
2001 · Bars in space
For the Media Lab website, Cho set Casey’s flat bars into three-dimensional space. The homepage revisits that move as planes of light — and nods to the Aesthetics + Computation Group where Processing began the same year.
Peter Cho’s account & images ↗
2010–11 · An identity for every person
Creative direction and design by E Roon Kang and Richard The, with programming and design by Willy Sengewald. Their three intersecting shapes generated more than 40,000 possible logos, so every member of the Lab could choose one. This site borrows the ideas of intersection, personal identity, and a mark made by code.
Project, images & full credits ↗
2014 · One grid, many voices
Pentagram turned a 7×7 grid into a shared language for the Media Lab and its research groups. The transparent Media Lab, Future Sketches, and PCD marks in this site all live on that same compact grid.
2026 · A living event identity
The PCD Boston / Cambridge mark was drawn with Yufeng Zhao’s Every 7×7 Binary Grid. On the homepage, it meets the Media Lab and Future Sketches marks inside a living field that visitors can change.
Every 7×7 Binary Grid ↗A small piece of the system for you.
Type your name to generate a mark in your browser. The same name always creates the same result, and nothing you type is stored or sent.
The same name always makes the same mark. It is drawn in your browser; your name is never stored or sent anywhere.