![In a bold move, the Rhode Island School of Design announced in December that John Maeda, associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab, where he has served since 1996, will take over as RISD’s 16th president starting in June. Maeda has long been an advocate for humanizing technology and for marrying design and computer science in a seamless whole. As a designer he has experimented with motion typography and has developed complex systems for clients such as Cartier, Google, Philips, Reebok and Samsung. He has also authored books including Creative Code and the most recent, The Laws of Simplicity, which has been published in 14 languages. Needless to say, this announcement came as a surprise to many in the design field. How will assuming the presidency of a major design institution alter the ways Maeda works? More importantly, how will Maeda alter an institution with so much history? Although all will become clear after he assumes the seat of power, we couldn’t wait to hear his reasons for taking on this challenge and his immediate plans for the future.
Heller: John, it’s difficult to know where to start—indeed, it’s been hard to pin your career down. However, you state in your online video that you relish new things. And one constant for you has been the MIT Media Lab. Tell me about that experience and what’s prompted you to leave the fertile ground of MIT.
Maeda: The Media Lab is a unique singularity point in the history of academia. It was the result of combining two visions: Professor Nicholas Negroponte’s stunningly accurate prediction of digital convergence from the ’70s, together with former MIT president, the late Jerome Wiesner’s passion to contextualize science and technology in the human equation. Wiesner, having worked on the Manhattan Project, knew firsthand that technology did not live in a vacuum separate from human concerns.
I started out, first and foremost, a product of MIT and not the Media Lab. My undergrad and grad studies were in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT—after which I was at the Media Lab for a year as a PhD student, only to drop out because of a negative experience with my faculty advisor. I am always grateful to my old advisor—if it were not for him I would have never gone to art school. The “lucky accident” we often describe in making art or while designing is prevalent in life in general.
I came back to the Media Lab in 1996 to fill the shoes of the late Muriel Cooper. After 11 years, the shoes still feel quite loose, as Muriel had spent decades going after many “grails” of visual design. My interests have always been very broad. I like creating in all kinds of media, especially words like I write now. The RISD presidency seemed particularly attractive because I would then be able to broaden my interests even further. There are so many more Cooper-esque folks out there that are younger and more talented than myself, like Martin Wattenberg, Ben Fry and Casey Reas. I feel it is more their time than mine. Mine has passed in this area of visual research, but of course I still continue to dabble.
Heller: Most university or college presidents are involved with the image and wellbeing of their respective schools. They are the corporate face of the institution and also the prime fund-raisers. Your academic career has been focused on developing innovative curricula. How do you reconcile your creative needs with the conventions of a presidency? In other words, are you going to be the conventional college president?
Maeda: At the Media Lab as associate director I have been managing the Lab’s cash flow and have turned things around, with my right hand, Becky Bermont. So, fundraising and also the more important challenge of funding retention has been part of my job. In business it is often said that it is always better to effectively keep a customer versus focusing solely recruiting new customers, because your best customers do the job of selling you to new customers for free. I look forward to the fundraising challenges I face ahead.
Heller: But you are also an artist…
Maeda: I think my MO has always been to find design and art even in the most inane tasks. If “administration design” was a field to invent, or even “administration art,” then I am up for the challenge. The number one request I heard from RISD students was, “If I am at the most creative school in the world, then I should see that reflected in the administration—no, demand it.” Innovation can play a role in any situation, I believe.
Heller: Everyone is curious to hear what went on in the meeting that convinced you to take on this role. Without betraying confidences, can you paraphrase the moment that sealed the deed?
Maeda: Really from the beginning, I thought I’d never have a chance at getting the job. Once it had materialized as a possibility I recall my wife, Kris, [jokingly] betting all my kids—five girls—that “Daddy can’t get this job.” Add to that I showed up 30 minutes late for the interview, as I was stuck in a meeting at MIT that I couldn’t leave. Somehow I got the “callback,” and after that point somehow remained during each phase of the process.
When it came to me in the end, I kept thinking how the review panels, search committee and the board were all composed of crazed innovator-types that wanted to show the world that RISD was the only place in the world that would be willing to make the leap to hyperspace. Sort of “Look at us, world—we’re going to go where no art and school and design has ever gone before!” I figured if they were willing to press the hyperspace button, then I couldn’t turn down the chance to boldly go where no artist/designer has gone before. Note that I’m not a Trekkie or anything but am known to channel James T. Kirk once in a blue moon.
Read more here at AIGA.](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lc5vs23uFI1qzrl8oo1_500.jpg "In a bold move, the Rhode Island School of Design announced in December that John Maeda, associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab, where he has served since 1996, will take over as RISD’s 16th president starting in June. Maeda has long been an advocate for humanizing technology and for marrying design and computer science in a seamless whole. As a designer he has experimented with motion typography and has developed complex systems for clients such as Cartier, Google, Philips, Reebok and Samsung. He has also authored books including Creative Code and the most recent, The Laws of Simplicity, which has been published in 14 languages. Needless to say, this announcement came as a surprise to many in the design field. How will assuming the presidency of a major design institution alter the ways Maeda works? More importantly, how will Maeda alter an institution with so much history? Although all will become clear after he assumes the seat of power, we couldn’t wait to hear his reasons for taking on this challenge and his immediate plans for the future.
Heller: John, it’s difficult to know where to start—indeed, it’s been hard to pin your career down. However, you state in your online video that you relish new things. And one constant for you has been the MIT Media Lab. Tell me about that experience and what’s prompted you to leave the fertile ground of MIT.
Maeda: The Media Lab is a unique singularity point in the history of academia. It was the result of combining two visions: Professor Nicholas Negroponte’s stunningly accurate prediction of digital convergence from the ’70s, together with former MIT president, the late Jerome Wiesner’s passion to contextualize science and technology in the human equation. Wiesner, having worked on the Manhattan Project, knew firsthand that technology did not live in a vacuum separate from human concerns.
I started out, first and foremost, a product of MIT and not the Media Lab. My undergrad and grad studies were in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT—after which I was at the Media Lab for a year as a PhD student, only to drop out because of a negative experience with my faculty advisor. I am always grateful to my old advisor—if it were not for him I would have never gone to art school. The “lucky accident” we often describe in making art or while designing is prevalent in life in general.
I came back to the Media Lab in 1996 to fill the shoes of the late Muriel Cooper. After 11 years, the shoes still feel quite loose, as Muriel had spent decades going after many “grails” of visual design. My interests have always been very broad. I like creating in all kinds of media, especially words like I write now. The RISD presidency seemed particularly attractive because I would then be able to broaden my interests even further. There are so many more Cooper-esque folks out there that are younger and more talented than myself, like Martin Wattenberg, Ben Fry and Casey Reas. I feel it is more their time than mine. Mine has passed in this area of visual research, but of course I still continue to dabble.
Heller: Most university or college presidents are involved with the image and wellbeing of their respective schools. They are the corporate face of the institution and also the prime fund-raisers. Your academic career has been focused on developing innovative curricula. How do you reconcile your creative needs with the conventions of a presidency? In other words, are you going to be the conventional college president?
Maeda: At the Media Lab as associate director I have been managing the Lab’s cash flow and have turned things around, with my right hand, Becky Bermont. So, fundraising and also the more important challenge of funding retention has been part of my job. In business it is often said that it is always better to effectively keep a customer versus focusing solely recruiting new customers, because your best customers do the job of selling you to new customers for free. I look forward to the fundraising challenges I face ahead.
Heller: But you are also an artist…
Maeda: I think my MO has always been to find design and art even in the most inane tasks. If “administration design” was a field to invent, or even “administration art,” then I am up for the challenge. The number one request I heard from RISD students was, “If I am at the most creative school in the world, then I should see that reflected in the administration—no, demand it.” Innovation can play a role in any situation, I believe.
Heller: Everyone is curious to hear what went on in the meeting that convinced you to take on this role. Without betraying confidences, can you paraphrase the moment that sealed the deed?
Maeda: Really from the beginning, I thought I’d never have a chance at getting the job. Once it had materialized as a possibility I recall my wife, Kris, [jokingly] betting all my kids—five girls—that “Daddy can’t get this job.” Add to that I showed up 30 minutes late for the interview, as I was stuck in a meeting at MIT that I couldn’t leave. Somehow I got the “callback,” and after that point somehow remained during each phase of the process.
When it came to me in the end, I kept thinking how the review panels, search committee and the board were all composed of crazed innovator-types that wanted to show the world that RISD was the only place in the world that would be willing to make the leap to hyperspace. Sort of “Look at us, world—we’re going to go where no art and school and design has ever gone before!” I figured if they were willing to press the hyperspace button, then I couldn’t turn down the chance to boldly go where no artist/designer has gone before. Note that I’m not a Trekkie or anything but am known to channel James T. Kirk once in a blue moon.
Read more here at AIGA.")
In a bold move, the Rhode Island School of Design announced in December that John Maeda, associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab, where he has served since 1996, will take over as RISD’s 16th president starting in June. Maeda has long been an advocate for humanizing technology and for marrying design and computer science in a seamless whole. As a designer he has experimented with motion typography and has developed complex systems for clients such as Cartier, Google, Philips, Reebok and Samsung. He has also authored books including Creative Code and the most recent, The Laws of Simplicity, which has been published in 14 languages. Needless to say, this announcement came as a surprise to many in the design field. How will assuming the presidency of a major design institution alter the ways Maeda works? More importantly, how will Maeda alter an institution with so much history? Although all will become clear after he assumes the seat of power, we couldn’t wait to hear his reasons for taking on this challenge and his immediate plans for the future.
Heller: John, it’s difficult to know where to start—indeed, it’s been hard to pin your career down. However, you state in your online video that you relish new things. And one constant for you has been the MIT Media Lab. Tell me about that experience and what’s prompted you to leave the fertile ground of MIT.
Maeda: The Media Lab is a unique singularity point in the history of academia. It was the result of combining two visions: Professor Nicholas Negroponte’s stunningly accurate prediction of digital convergence from the ’70s, together with former MIT president, the late Jerome Wiesner’s passion to contextualize science and technology in the human equation. Wiesner, having worked on the Manhattan Project, knew firsthand that technology did not live in a vacuum separate from human concerns.
I started out, first and foremost, a product of MIT and not the Media Lab. My undergrad and grad studies were in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT—after which I was at the Media Lab for a year as a PhD student, only to drop out because of a negative experience with my faculty advisor. I am always grateful to my old advisor—if it were not for him I would have never gone to art school. The “lucky accident” we often describe in making art or while designing is prevalent in life in general.
I came back to the Media Lab in 1996 to fill the shoes of the late Muriel Cooper. After 11 years, the shoes still feel quite loose, as Muriel had spent decades going after many “grails” of visual design. My interests have always been very broad. I like creating in all kinds of media, especially words like I write now. The RISD presidency seemed particularly attractive because I would then be able to broaden my interests even further. There are so many more Cooper-esque folks out there that are younger and more talented than myself, like Martin Wattenberg, Ben Fry and Casey Reas. I feel it is more their time than mine. Mine has passed in this area of visual research, but of course I still continue to dabble.
Heller: Most university or college presidents are involved with the image and wellbeing of their respective schools. They are the corporate face of the institution and also the prime fund-raisers. Your academic career has been focused on developing innovative curricula. How do you reconcile your creative needs with the conventions of a presidency? In other words, are you going to be the conventional college president?
Maeda: At the Media Lab as associate director I have been managing the Lab’s cash flow and have turned things around, with my right hand, Becky Bermont. So, fundraising and also the more important challenge of funding retention has been part of my job. In business it is often said that it is always better to effectively keep a customer versus focusing solely recruiting new customers, because your best customers do the job of selling you to new customers for free. I look forward to the fundraising challenges I face ahead.
Heller: But you are also an artist…
Maeda: I think my MO has always been to find design and art even in the most inane tasks. If “administration design” was a field to invent, or even “administration art,” then I am up for the challenge. The number one request I heard from RISD students was, “If I am at the most creative school in the world, then I should see that reflected in the administration—no, demand it.” Innovation can play a role in any situation, I believe.
Heller: Everyone is curious to hear what went on in the meeting that convinced you to take on this role. Without betraying confidences, can you paraphrase the moment that sealed the deed?
Maeda: Really from the beginning, I thought I’d never have a chance at getting the job. Once it had materialized as a possibility I recall my wife, Kris, [jokingly] betting all my kids—five girls—that “Daddy can’t get this job.” Add to that I showed up 30 minutes late for the interview, as I was stuck in a meeting at MIT that I couldn’t leave. Somehow I got the “callback,” and after that point somehow remained during each phase of the process.
When it came to me in the end, I kept thinking how the review panels, search committee and the board were all composed of crazed innovator-types that wanted to show the world that RISD was the only place in the world that would be willing to make the leap to hyperspace. Sort of “Look at us, world—we’re going to go where no art and school and design has ever gone before!” I figured if they were willing to press the hyperspace button, then I couldn’t turn down the chance to boldly go where no artist/designer has gone before. Note that I’m not a Trekkie or anything but am known to channel James T. Kirk once in a blue moon.
Read more here at AIGA.
