EVENT CHAIRS: LIZ DANZICO, LAURA FORDE, EMMA PRESLER

JOHN MAEDA

JOHN MAEDA, MODERATOR

RISD
THE LAWS OF SIMPLICITY
John Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, artist, and computer scientist, who now adds the title of College President to his diverse credentials. On December 21, 2007, the Board of Trustees of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) announced that John Maeda would become the 16th President of RISD.

Maeda’s early work redefined the use of electronic media as a tool for expression by combining skilled computer programming with sensitivity to traditional artistic concerns. This work helped to develop the interactive motion graphics that are prevalent on the Internet today. He has championed the use of the computer for people of all ages and skills to create art, and is a pioneering voice for “simplicity” in the digital age. He also initiated the Design By Numbers project, a global initiative to teach computer programming to visual artists through a freely available, custom software system that he designed.

In 1999 Maeda was included in Esquire magazine’s list of the 21 most important people for the 21st century. He is the recipient of the highest career honors for design in the USA (2001, National Design Award), Japan (2002, Mainichi Design Prize), and Germany (2005, Raymond Loewy Foundation Prize), and 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.

Dr. Maeda received both his BS and MS degrees from MIT, and earned his PhD in design from Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan. In May of 2003, he received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. At MIT since 1996, Maeda held the E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professorship of Media Arts and Sciences, and was the Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Laboratory, where he was responsible for managing research relationships with 70+ industrial organizations. A practicing designer since 1990, he has developed advanced projects for an array of major corporations including Cartier, Google, Philips, Reebok, Samsung, among others.

John Maeda is the author of four books, including his 480-page retrospective MAEDA@MEDIA (2001, Thames & Hudson). His most recent book, THE LAWS OF SIMPLICITY (2006, MIT Press) has been published in 14 languages and has become the reference work for discussions on the highly elusive theme of “simplicity” in the complex digital world.

STEVE DUENES

STEVE DUENES

NEW YORK TIMES
Steve Duenes manages the graphics department at The New York Times. The department is made up of 30 journalists who research and create the diagrams, maps and charts for the newspaper and the Web site. He started at The Times in 1999 as the graphics editor for science. In 2001, he became the deputy graphics director, and in 2004, he became the graphics director.

ANDREW KUO

ANDREW KUO

ANDREW KUO
Andrew Kuo was born in Queens, New York. He received his B.F.A. degree from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1999. His work enters around addressing his fears and anxieties in the form of detailed paper cutouts, crude sculptures, layered paintings, and systematic charts. They capture the overload of information and emotions, becoming therapeutic objects that help him quantify and order the world around him. The information Kuo attempts to categorize is virtually un-measurable as it all deals with raw human emotions—i.e. fear, excitement, stress, etc. Kuo’s work is about processing these things. He lives and works in New York City.

FERNANDA VIÉGAS

FERNANDA VIÉGAS

IBM
Fernanda Viégas is a research scientist in IBM's Visual Communication Lab. A graphic designer by training, Viégas is known for her pioneering work on depicting chat histories and email. Before joining IBM, Viégas’ research at the MIT Media Lab focused on the visualization of the traces people leave as they interact in online communities. Some of her projects explored email archives, newsgroup conversations, and the editing history of wiki pages. Having created traditional visualization tools for a number of years, she became fascinated by the power of the web to unleash collective discovery and discussion among lay users. Together with Martin Wattenberg, she created Many Eyes a web site that explores the social aspects of visual tools to foster collaboration, collective sensemaking, and storytelling.

Her visualization-based artwork has been exhibited in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Viégas holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and lives in Boston.