John Maeda >2005 official bio
associate director of research, the media lab
E. RUDGE and nancy allen professor of media arts and sciences
massachusetts Institute of technologY
the media lab
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS U.S.A.
Hello. My official bio is here. This is my unofficial bio ... which means it's just the unadorned reality of how I came to be and where I am at today at the end of the year 2005.
I was born and raised in a working-class family where my parents' simple dream was that one of us kids would make it to one of two mythical universities: "MIT" or "Harvard." The teachers in my school told my parents that I was good at art and mathematics. My parents liked the fact that I was good at mathematics, and somehow managed to forget the mention of the art-thingy. I made it into MIT in 1984, and noticed that there were upperclassmen stressing about a test in order to make it into something called "graduate school." Subsequently, I reported to my parents the existence of this "graduate school"-thing to which I was instructed to go there as well. Later, I learned about something called a "designer" which was a career that I became oddly attracted to when I realized how much more I enjoyed creating diagrams over writing equations while preparing my Master's thesis at MIT. I went to art school in Japan as a way to un-computerize myself, and to find my way in the classical sense. At the moment of declaring my freedom from computers and devoting to the classics, my professor told me to do "something young" with myself because the classics will still be there when I'm 70-something. So I re-connected my brain with the computer, and then created a genre of reactive visual experiences that turned out to influence the way the Web looks and feels today. The various work you see up at www.maedastudio.com was created by myself, because it is the inefficient model by which I operate.
I returned to MIT in 1996 to fill the big shoes of the late Professor Muriel Cooper but I quickly realized that would be somewhat impossible. The Aesthetics + Computation Group was born where I fostered the careers of some really incredible talent that continues to surprise me. Upon arrival to MIT I learned of this thing called "tenure" that, much like when I learned about "graduate school" as an undergraduate, really caught me off guard. Around that time, I was at a soccer match for one of my kids where there was a recently tenured Harvard professor there to whom I asked about this tenure thing. He told me that at Harvard, they tell their new facultyto not look at one's career as a 7-year rush to the tenure-finish line; instead they value people who have their goals set 30- to 40-years out. That was probably the best advice I ever received in academia. It's been slim pickings ever since.
In 2001, I briefly served as Associate Director of the Media Lab where I realized my own shortcomings as an administrator and left of my own accord. To remedy my deficiencies, I embarked on a two-year journey to earn an MBA. Along the way I had the surprise added-bonus of learning what it's like to be a student. Soon I learned of my deficiencies as a professor (by seeing it from the student's perspective, and by also having some inept professors) and am now in the midst of a lifelong process to improve as a professor. Heavens knows I'm not a perfect instructor, but I'm willing to try to get better.
My research group at MIT is co-directed with Henry Holtzman, who is probably the nicest and smartest guy you could ever know. The name of the group is the "Physical Language Workshop (PLW)" which confuses a lot of people as the name doesn't make 100% sense. I think the value of true research is that it tends to be undescribable, and thus I believe that a name that is hard to pin down is a good way to brand a research group. Recently the PLW students combined effort has created the OPENSTUDIO system which will one day hopefully realize a future where your kid can come up to you one day and say, "Mom (or Dad), I want to become an artist" and you will reply, "Well son (or daughter), that's a great career on par with becoming a lawyer, doctor, or scientist! I'm proud of you!"
The SIMPLICITY Consortium is a fantastic research entity that I created with the help of my colleague Dan Ariely. We have probably the happiest sponsors you could ever imagine, and I take great pride in their involvement at the Media Lab. Almost nothing about what we do as a consortium is available on the Web. That goes for the same of the work at the PLW. We're in no rush to make what we do popular; our primary concern is to make sure that it is first good.
I have written and designed a few books, won many more awards than I should have (but am grateful), and have logged lots of miles on enough airlines such that I'm able to always get onto the airplane first (which is important when you want to get your carry-ons into the overhead bins for maximum comfort). I keep a somewhat active "SIMPLICITY Blog" at where I am currently working out what I call "The Laws of Simplicity." Currently my exhibition at Fondation Cartier is up until February 19/2006, and is fortunately experiencing record attendance. There is little I have to complain about, and I am always looking to see what new kind of things I can learn.
A fortune cookie recently gave me a new direction in life, that as the year closes I am seriously considering. This is all for now. Have a happy new year in 2006!
