John Maeda, New President of RISD

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rhode Island School of Design
1

<p>I'm surprised nobody has posted this yet.</p>

<p>
[quote]
risd’s next president
<a href="http://www.risd.edu/president/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.risd.edu/president/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The Board of Trustees of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) announced on December 21, 2007 that John Maeda, Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Lab, has accepted the offer to become the 16th president of RISD.</p>

<p>RISD Board Chair Merrill Sherman said, “We are delighted to name John Maeda as successor to Roger Mandle. RISD has a special obligation to play a leadership role in the world of art and design, nationally and internationally. Creativity and innovation are more important than ever. We believe John will be a bold, innovative and exciting president and will enhance RISD’s role in helping to shape and inform art and design in this century.”</p>

<p>John Maeda has a distinguished career in humanizing technology for creative endeavors. He has been a professor at MIT since 1996 where he is currently the Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Lab, responsible for managing research relationships with 70+ industrial organizations. He has also been a practicing designer since 1990 and has developed advanced projects for an array of major corporations including Cartier, Google, Philips, Reebok, Samsung, among others. His early work in digital media design is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since 2001, Maeda’s works of contemporary art have been exhibited in one-man shows in London, New York, and Paris to wide acclaim. His highly regarded fourth book, The Laws of Simplicity has been published in fourteen languages and has become the reference work for discussions on the highly elusive theme of “simplicity” in the complex digital world. Maeda has lectured at numerous conferences, universities, museums, and to corporate audiences throughout the world on his philosophy of “humanizing technology.”</p>

<p>Maeda said, “It is my deepest honor to be selected by the RISD Presidential Search Committee which was comprised of an extremely committed group of students, staff, faculty, and trustees — bringing all their unique perspectives to the table. Furthermore, to receive the unanimous approval of the Board of Trustees is a gratifying vote of confidence that instills in me a real determination to advance all aspects of RISD as an institution representative of the highest standards of learning. I look forward to working with the incredibly inspiring and creative community of RISD to realize the possibilities for the world’s first truly 21st century university of art and design.”</p>

<p>Maeda will assume his responsibilities as president of RISD in June 2008.

[/quote]
</p>

2

<p>Silverpetal, there was a discussion of this appointment in the Art Schools thread in December. It's pretty exciting.</p>

3

<p>Yup, heard of it a while ago...but I'm rather curious even after reading the interview and such-- who exactly is he, other than former design director of MIT? And why does everyone seem so excited? From what I've heard he seems like a celebrity almost in the design world, but I can't really judge based on just the recent articles.</p>

4

<p>Kalonity,
Visit his website for starters. He's a thrilling thinker and innovator, and the RISD community is excited to have him, partly, I think, because the current President, while a stellar fundraiser, is more of an adminstrator than a visionary. Maeda <em>is</em> a visionary and just what many at RISD believe the school could use right now.</p>