ESP Biography



TARA LIU, art&technology&narrative




Major: 6-3, CMS

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 2020

Picture of Tara Liu

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Not Available.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

W13944: Face masks in Spark 2020 (Mar. 14 - 15, 2020)
Make your face super soft by putting on a face mask! get smooth glowing skin


X13192: Spontaneous 5-Minute Classes on Whatever You Want in Splash 2019 (Nov. 23 - 24, 2019)
You choose the topic, we improvise a 5-minute lesson on it! Bring your wackiest topic suggestions, and watch us embarrass ourselves as we teach you about them on the spur of the moment.


H13193: How to Survive a Public Faming in Splash 2019 (Nov. 23 - 24, 2019)
"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" -- Andy Warhol, 1968 50 years later, we definitely see that Warhol was right with the heavy proliferation of short-lived Vine, TikTok and Instagram stars. But what is the actual lived experience of going viral? How does it compare with our understanding of traditional celebrity culture? In this class, we're going to be discussing "fame ephemera" -- people who gain explosive meme appeal and are then quickly forgotten. We'll go over current debates in celebrity studies, use a case study from Jeopardy to analyze how fame works, and close with a discussion on celebrity culture in our own lives.


A13197: Paint Realistically with Gouache in Splash 2019 (Nov. 23 - 24, 2019)
Have you always wanted to paint realistically? Or maybe you're curious about gouache (a fast-drying, opaque version of watercolor)? Well, here's your chance! We'll briefly cover composition, color mixing, and some gouache-specific techniques, then give you time to work on a painting you can bring home.


A12955: Paint Realistically with Gouache in Spark 2019 (Mar. 16 - 17, 2019)
Have you always wanted to paint realistically? Or maybe you're curious about gouache (a fast-drying, opaque version of watercolor)? Well, here's your chance! We'll briefly cover composition, color mixing, and some gouache-specific techniques, then give you time to work on a painting you can bring home.


A12192: Paint Realistically with Gouache in Spark 2018 (Mar. 17 - 18, 2018)
Have you always wanted to paint realistically? Or maybe you're curious about gouache (a fast-drying, opaque version of watercolor)? Well, here's your chance! We'll briefly cover composition, color mixing, and some gouache-specific techniques, then give you time to work on a painting you can bring home.


M11999: Generating Functions in Splash 2017 (Nov. 18 - 19, 2017)
The Fibonacci sequence looks like 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,... You get it by starting with two 1s and getting the next number by adding the two previous ones. What is the millionth number you get? Rather than working it out, we'll find a quicker way to figure this out using generating functions, a really fun tool in math.


A12009: Gouache Painting Studio in Splash 2017 (Nov. 18 - 19, 2017)
Come learn and experiment with a rather underappreciated medium, gouache! Made of lots of pigment with a small amount of binder, gouache lets you paint opaquely, like acrylic, yet also use watercolor techniques when diluted. We'll go over some gouache techniques, then have studio time to work on your own paintings.


A11337: Beading: Make a Star Keychain in Spark 2017 (Mar. 11 - 12, 2017)
Learn to make a 3-D beaded star using only beads and a single string, without needing to tie any knots. Bring home a cute keychain that you can keep or gift to a friend!


A10934: Intro to Beading: Making 3D Things in Splash 2016 (Nov. 19 - 20, 2016)
Learn to make 3D structures using only beads and a single string! I will teach you how to make a dodecahedron out of beads, and also introduce some ways to generalize what you've learned so that you can make anything you could imagine. Leave the class with a cute keychain and a newfound power to make many, many polyhedra.