New President John Maeda predicts soaring growth at Rhode Island School of Design, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be seeing a new gym or library or any other large structure rising up on campus.
“Should RISD expand physically?” he mused during a recent discussion of the school’s future. “I don’t know. It should expand virtually, by building virtual spaces that will allow RISD to reach the entire world.”
That outlook is exactly what the world has come to expect from Maeda, a globe-trotting Internet guru who’s been on the cutting edge as both a graphic designer and a computer scientist. Esquire magazine has dubbed the 41-year-old “one of the most important people of the 21st century.” Before coming to Providence he served as associate director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, the much-ballyhooed research department devoted to projects at the convergence of multimedia and technology.
For that reason, his arrival in the capital city has grabbed the attention of techies and business types as well as artists. More than a hundred people were on hand when Maeda sat down on June 11 for a talk-show style interview at the R.I. Economic Development Corporation’s Providence office, where the discussion ranged from the Internet, to gardening to RISD’s student glassblowers.
“He’s a guy who gets it from both sides, in charge of a great Rhode Island institution,” said David Durand, CEO of Tizra, a software-hosting service based in Providence. “That’s fantastic.”
“He’s going to take the school in the direction it should be going,” added Matt Brito, artistic director at the direct marketing service Mercury Print and Mail.
Maeda has made himself a very visible figure on campus over the past few weeks, dropping in on classes, eating in student cafeterias, and inviting folks to join him on his daily jogs. At the same time, he has warily avoided any detailed discussion of future plans for the venerable institution. He has been direct about one thing, however: he hopes to bury all the old-fashioned notions about starving artists.
“If a kid says she wants to be an artist, her parents begin to worry about how she’s going to make a living,” he said at the RIEDC event. “We have to flip that thinking around. … It’s OK to make a living.”
He’s quick to add he’ll do nothing to diminish the school’s reputation as a sanctuary for old-world craftsmanship. He frequently describes RISD as a garden that grows heirloom tomatoes. He’s proposed a marketing label for the Ocean State – “Handcrafted in Rhode Island” – that would serve as a mark of distinction. And he’s ready to stretch the definition of “handcrafted” to include computer software.
“What is needed is a more integrative approach to engaging business-thinking with creative-thinking,” he said in a recent blog entry. “How will this be done? What a great challenge to work on. That’s why I’m headed to RISD.”
That kind of talk got an enthusiastic response from Durand. “Bridging that cultural gap could be good for RISD and good for the state if he could make that happen,” he said. “His combination of artistic and technical skills and abilities may be just the thing to kick-start a new generation of ideas coming from RISD.”
Maeda again aired his thoughts about the artist’s role in the digital age during a recent visit to nonprofit community arts space AS220, receiving praise there as well.
“He’s a thinker who’s going to bring new energy to the institution and the community,” said artistic director Umberto Crenca. “We do have artists who have to piece together multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet, but that can change. In the future the world economy will require more and more imagination. And throughout history, it’s artists who find uses for new technology, uses that inventors never intended.”
Maeda has said that he discovered the joys of craftsmanship at an early age. He grew up in Seattle, where his parents ran a tofu-making business, and spent many hours working in their shop. Later he studied at MIT and Japan’s University of Tsukuba. He has written several books, including “The Laws of Simplicity,” a treatise on making the world a less complicated place. As a graphic designer, he moved from the printed page to the Internet page, creating animated corporate logos that move, grow or explode.
At MIT and now RISD, Maeda has shared his thoughts with the world through Internet blogs. On his current Web diary (our.risd.edu) he discusses recent visits with RISD trustees, faculty, students and alum. In one entry he offers a bit of advice from Hollywood producer and RISD grad Scott Mednick: “Don’t look for someone else’s ending in life.”
“Find your own path – I believe this is the RISD way,” Maeda wrote. “RISD creates extraordinary people that can become heroes with real superpowers. Perhaps capes should be distributed at the next RISD convocation.” •
