Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Manga on the Web

2008-04-06T11:22:22-05:00

My friend has launched an online service for publishing manga on the Web called MangaNovel.com. The site is unique for its ability to let you look at manga in different translations that are user-generated in a WIKI-like fashion. If you're curious about the future of manga, it's an interesting platform to checkout.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

Reebok Emoretion

2008-03-27T23:16:17-05:00

My new limited edition shoes for Reebok will launch March 31. I'm certainly getting emoretional about the launch date.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

Haiku Remixed

2008-03-19T21:26:32-05:00

Clifton Burt from Mississippi writes, "I just wanted to let you know that our design resource center recently used letters from a discarded sign to construct the haiku from your Simplicity blog post of April 21, 2007." Thanks Clifton!

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

E15 Continues

2008-03-15T15:26:35-05:00

It seems that every time I see my guys working on E15, something new feature has been added or refined. The guys are currently setting up my machine to program in this new system. Staying in pace with the times is certainly a full time job.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

Past and Future

2008-03-01T16:01:32-05:00

Last week in Los Angeles I had the pleasure of seeing the past and also the future. Today I am in the present, I think.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

Representation and Participation

2008-03-01T09:15:18-05:00

In academia there are many committees as compared with industry. Committees enable the sharing of viewpoints in an open forum of members who are committed to the cause of the committee. If you turn that around however for someone who is not on the committee, from the outside it appears like a closed forum and makes those that are not inside the committee feel less committed to the cause of the committee.

A committee is usually formed of representatives for particular constituent groups. It is the responsibility of the representatives to provide representation, and more importantly to report back to their constituents how they did with enough details such that they feel properly represented but also they know how to become more committed, albeit indirectly.

Minutes are an important tool for sharing the issues discussed in a meeting, knowing who went or didn't go, and when shared openly provide for greater accountability. Starting the meeting with an agenda is important; sharing the agenda ahead of time for feedback is even more important. Finally, executing the meeting in the promised allotment of time is critical.

Even and fair participation is important. Otherwise the viewpoints become skewed and the outcome fails to benefit from the strength of diverse opinions. The leader needs to be careful to solicit opinions from quiet constituents, and at the same time ask for more vocal constituents to grant some extra room for the less vocally-gifted.

A committed core needs to connect with the uncommitted masses. Otherwise the committee has no meaning to exist. Communication in every which way is everything for the leader. Without communication, she is the leader of a team of one -- her own mind.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

The Economist: Debating Simplicity

2008-02-22T18:33:03-05:00

I am debating on The Economist this weekend on the proposition, "This house believes that if the promise of technology is to simplify our lives, it is failing." Initially I had wanted to be on the PRO side, but ended up on the CON side and had great fun with my submission. I found it important to support the advancement of technology, and am beginning to find a voice inside me that I had long forgotten. My upcoming move to RISD has given me much opportunity to think about how technology stands in opposition/harmony to the arts and design.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

Y(our) RISD

2008-02-17T13:24:50-05:00

I have begun to start a diary of my various emergent understandings of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). The URL is our.risd.edu and will give me a chance to reacquaint myself with ideas that focus primarily on the arts and design. Am trying to figure out where to move the other functions of this blog (which are mainly as a place to work out my feelings) as I begin my transition out of MIT. I probably need to have it in order to help me think straight. So that will come eventually.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

The Silence of Creativity

2008-02-05T00:47:11-05:00

2008-02-05 00:37:16.480 painter[2462] REQUESTING load file named: mydata_blank.xml with numberid 1 out of 9 >>>>############ DOING CLEANUP >>>>#### cleaned >>> TOTAL LAYERS IS 33 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> set time to zero **** drawview clearframep = 0 ########################################DOING COMMON

> Prepping fb mgr ... > Done. /Users/maeda/python/bezshape.py:146: DeprecationWarning: integer argument expected, got float for i in range(ni): 0 1 412.112297299 42.8183057777 2 3 333.76680165 156.817400328 4 5 371.739947367 112.152049732 6 7 152.322836043 96.5593323427 connecting >> data 0 >> xml >> lengths >> scanning id >>>>>>>>>> IDNUM IS 277 >>> made it >>> going ahead with (102, 7, 3) ************************** GOTTA FREE LOTS OF MEMORY SOMEDAY HERE ************ **** drawview clearframep = 0 ########################################DOING COMMON > Prepping fb mgr ... >> Brushes cleaned. > Done. 0 1 240.368698757 65.0427509257 2 3 72.7788784829 71.6847370451 ...

I realize that in my 41st year of life, one thing remains the same: I still listen intently to the strange codes that emit from the computer during the debugging of any new work. Programming to me has never been something I've enjoyed -- I've been quite open about that. Sure, there was a time in my life when I teetered on enjoying the process of it all more than the finished work; and then I would quickly swing back to a preference of focusing on the outcome instead. I owe that thought to one of my mentors from long ago.

For me, it is maybe the process of simply thinking about something in a creative sense ... that gets me excited. Does it have to result in something? Yes. That seems odd really. Because if all I cared about being creative was just to do something creative, then I wouldn't need to get to a finished result. No. Getting to some endpoint seems to be the real enjoyment. It's not for others to recognize the fruits of your work; it's for yourself. The desire is to complete a thought. So then ... you can go on and find a new one to torment yourself with. The intellectual torment ... is ... fun? Hmmmm. Difficult to say. Perhaps it is a kind of acquired taste for an odd pleasure.

Gerry Sussman put this all succinctly for me the other day quite graciously. And my debt to MIT continues to grow ...

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

I Google

2008-01-23T11:46:02-05:00

Smooth and soft.

I have launched a new theme on iGoogle. The theme changes based upon the time of day (every 4 hours), and is based upon a series of strokes I drew by hand and a simple algorithmic manipulation thereof.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

The Assistant

2008-01-21T10:48:49-05:00

On the ride from Tokyo to Narita Airport, a co-worker from my past escorted me to say goodbye. He related how his professor at Tokyo University (sort of like the Harvard of Japan) was probably the #1 or #2 people in the world in his subfield of materials science. This professor�s administrative assistant of thirty years had recently died at the young age of 55 from cancer. My friend was still reeling from this news and wanted to relieve some of his pain by relating the story as he and many past students had a deep emotional attachment to her.

As the story went, the professor's assistant had followed this famous professor all the way up from being a junior professor to later becoming a high ranking person in the professor�s field. My friend joked about how people all over the world claimed to not know who the professor was, but everyone sure knew his administrative assistant because she was the one that made things happen logistics-wise for this famed professor. He was loved, not just for his expertise, but the good company he had closest to him as support.

Towards the end of her life in the hospital this professor visited her every day without fail. He canceled all his travel to be with her. And since he was so respected in Japan, he moved his assistant to the highest ranking doctor and service above all other VIPs at the hospital ... yet it did not result in her getting better.

The lesson I took away from this is one that I know by heart. That great people know how to take care of their people. For a great person does not become great by themselves.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

Why Being Creative Is Good

2008-01-06T22:40:43-05:00

Much of my days and all hours are now spent on contemplating the value of the arts and design. Of course there is the economical value of art as artifacts that accrue value, or design as enabling enhancements that result in product revenues. But my mind has wandered towards this strange overused word of creative. The idea of someone that has a propensity to create.

While watching my daughter's viola lesson, and as she stood in front of the class, I realized that the moment when the bow touched the strings was not something to be taken for granted. It was the moment when she was to begin the process of expressing herself by creating music. To create is to potentially embarrass oneself in front of others. It is about the courage to be oneself and to be seen as oneself. Putting ink to a page, or pressing one's fingers against clay, or typing a line of computer code, or blowing glass and realizing mistake. Or success. With everyone watching. But most importantly, you.

So it dawned upon me how important it is to be a creative. Because it means you have within you infinite capacity to experiment. You are unafraid to go somewhere new because you are creating a new thought process about your own creativity. You know that if you stop and no longer challenge yourself, you cease to be creative. You become still, silent, and the bow no longer connect with the strings and music is not made. And you do not exist. You show you do not have the courage to exist.

Creativity is courage. The world needs more fearless people that can influence all disciplines to challenge their very existence. Creativity is reflection aimed not at yourself, but at the world around you.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

New Year's Cards

2008-01-01T21:15:29-05:00

I received three unique cards from some of my former students.

From Golan Levin, something squishy.

From Peter Cho, something green.

From Elise Co and Nikita Pashenkov, something romantic.

But from me, all you get is a crummy ascii-style greeting of Happy New Year! Perhaps in 09 I will be able to make something as clever as Golan and the gang to share.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

3 or 4 vs 5 or 6

2007-12-30T12:14:14-05:00

In the recent days since the RISD announcement I have been expanding my search for wisdom by meeting with current sitting university presidents as my new hobby. One president told me a funny story about former MIT president Paul Gray who was MIT's president when I was an undergraduate here. He said that Gray told him once, "For any given evening while you are trying to go to sleep, you will realize that you have let down 3 or 4 people or groups on campus. This will be the case daily. What is important once in a while, is for you to let down 5 or 6 to make you realize what a good job you're doing in general." This bit of dark wit certainly made me smile.

Currently at RISD I'm doing something a bit different in the virtual space. There is an internal forum where I am in the midst of connecting with RISD students, staff, and faculty to begin to learn all about RISD. It's funny because one of the staff persons discovered an interesting coincidence along the same vein of my finding MIT in the words SIMPLICITY and COMPLEXITY. She discovered that the current RISD president's name, and my name, are coincidentally connected to the word, "ONE," -- which is the launch point for our internal forum called one.risd:

ROGER MANDLE
JOHN MAEDA
COINCIDENCE?

I certainly felt the strong hand of fate. Oh my.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab

The Laptop That Walks

2007-12-26T09:16:12-05:00

Green is in style for 08.

My new XO arrived just in time last week to gift to a close friend. I ordered a bunch more as I am so impressed with the build -- there's still time until December 31 to buy the neatest little laptop available today. And you also help out a worthy cause.

For around the same amount of cash as an XO give-one-get-one deal ($400), I got myself an xmas present in the form of the new Pleo robotic creature. Now, I didn't own a Tamagotchi, nor did I own a Furby, I did have a couple of Aibos on loan from my friend who used to work at Sony but never really got into them, and I don't do the online pet thing either so you can consider me a naysayer when it comes to artificial life forms. But Pleo is really different. I actually feel ... attached ... to this little fella. It's extremely well thought out. From its open-source model, to its sophisticated range of behaviors, to its cute little sounds -- okay I'm a bit in love with this thing and I'm definitely embarrassed.

At the Media Lab and other research institutions around the world, we've been talking about the transition from "personal computers" to "personal robotics" as one day happening for real. I feel it for the very first time. Urooowoowooo (simulated Pleo-ese for "Happy Holidays!").

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab