The "Art Question" at MIT
John Maeda is a professor at the MIT Media Lab. On his blog, Thoughts on Simplicity, he has an interesting (and important) response to students who ask this question: "Is it ... okay ... to make art at the Lab?"
Check out his answer here.
While your visiting the MIT site, you might want to check out the Powered ankle-foot prosthesis (and here), and how one of their scientists is using a cell phone to keep track of owls (via the UK Telegraph here).