When John Maeda was voted in as president of RISD four years ago, I was elated. Here was a man who stood at the intersection of art and technology, bright, a graphic designer, originally from Seattle-- the whole thing sounded to be just the thing that I thought RISD needed.
But it hasn't been good. On March 2nd, the faculty of Rhode Island School of Design overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Maeda's ability to lead the school as president. In information sent out with the no confidence vote, the faculty states:
"Among the numerous specific events that gradually alienated the faculty who voted no confidence, the following stand out. The first was the removal of the then Provost Jay Coogan and the imposition of then Dean Jessie Shefrin in his place. Under prior presidents, provosts were selected after formal consultation with the faculty and sometimes after national searches.
In 2008 the President spurned established RISD practice and simply thrust his provost on the faculty. In the ensuing months and years an excessive number of long-term, highly experienced and competent administrators and staff were eliminated. Some turnover is inevitable with changes at the top, but the scale and manner of these forced removals were staggering.
... Besides the provost, the director of the Museum, the director of Communications, the director of Financial Aid, the director of Alumni and Career Services, the director of Continuing Education, the director of Institutional Research, the director of the Office of Public Engagement, the director of the Writing Center, the vice president of Finance and Administration, and key members of Student Development, Human Resources, Financial Aid, Student Life, Museum staff, and Public Safety were all gone by March 2011. "
These changes, along with the recent decision by the Provost to reorganize the academic structure of the school, have all led to Maeda's current predicament.
Although Wikipedia tells us-- and perhaps Maeda himself posted this-- that the faculty is "uncomfortable with his former Massachusetts Institute of Technology ties, disappointed in his indifference to their input and generally unsatisfied with his overall performence (sic)," these words, obviously written in haste, look like a bit of quick pro-Maeda propaganda, softening the historical blow.
Truth is, the faculty is not "uncomfortable"," disappointed" and "generally unsatisfied" with John Maeda. They hate him. They have lost all respect for him as a leader and as a person. And they want him out.
Maeda's made so many enemies and done so many wrong-headed things in such a short amount of time that I am reminded once again that IQ and intelligence are not the same thing. He's made many sweeping administrative errors, but it is this that bothers me: he thinks himself more intelligent than those who surround him and those who have gone before him. And since he believes himself more intelligent and advanced than the people that went before him, he assumes that what they believed is not true anymore, is outdated. This is a false syllogism.
John Maeda may think that because he has a smartphone and can process the video he is taking of you (while you are trying to converse with him) through html 5 and make it interact with objects in a cornfield in real time or some such thing, that somehow his vision of what art education is and should be is "more advanced" than that of the rest of the faculty at RISD, but in this thinking he is also mistaken. This logic is roughly equivalent to your saying that you can bake a better cupcake than I can because you use a silicone pan. The recipe and quality of ingredients, the baking time or general talent of the baker seem to have nothing to do with it.
We believed that Maeda could do for us that which we were too lazy to do for ourselves. We wanted him to somehow make what we teach seem new and shiny in the current era, without our really having to do anything about it. But we expected way too much from one man, and we did not understand that his great talent seems to be that of the person who first sees a shiny object in the marketplace and runs to get it. He is the earliest of adopters, the bell-weather of early adopters.
We wanted bright, shiny things to be part of what people saw at RISD. So we took a chance on Maeda. And we learned something. Crows like to find shiny objects and build nests with them, but they continue to be crows. Real education in the arts must look to the past as well as to the future. The new is not "better" than the old. Techno-revolutions need to be included, not pandered to. Teaching artists is about much more than trumpeting the technological revolution's continuing cry to forward motion.
My nephew is not going to RISD because he wants to join Maeda in his wholehearted technological run for the roses. My nephew lives in the techno-present, as do all 19 year-olds. He went to RISD because he felt cozy in the Nature Lab. Honestly. That's what made the decision for him: the cozy feeling of the Nature Lab. It kept him from accepting a HUGE scholarship to MassArt. He wants to make prints. He has enough shiny objects.
Comments
Very troubling.
My feelings about him were nailed when I read that he wants to combine the ceramics and glass departments. He is dismissive of the history of craft and the importance of materiality in art. I hope he resigns ASAP.
One would assume the president would have to have five keys components to yield success for all: a great communicator; a great listener; cohesive knowledge and foresight of the world of art and design; navigate the financial backbone of the school working with trustees, faculty, donors, students and alumni bringing the vision together for the future; and finally no personal agenda.
http://www.amazon.com/Redesigning-Leadership-Simplicity-Technology-Business/dp/0262015889
I have always thought that hiring faculty or heads/deans/presidents based on their artistic or professional renown was not always the best way to fill leadership positions. Sometimes, people are good leaders who know they are not good leaders or famous artists or designers.
Conversely, there are some academic leaders who have been around too long. Even successful university presidents and deans should have term limits. Say, 15 years for president and 8 for deans, tops.
The best move John could make is to gracefully resign before the end of the semester and the graduation ceremonies. Even if history deems him somehow right about most of what he did during his tenure.
And herein lies the problem: we have become an audience who craves the one-liner, the entertaining sound bites, the five minute YouTube spectacles. But running an entire school is very different. Moreover, running a school successfully during one of our most trying economic times is not only challenging, but also maddening for all of those around that leader. As Maeda, and likely everyone at RISD knows: leaders are not made by the tone, strength, veritas, or applause their lectures can deliver. Yes, inspiration is one part, but there is so much more that must be done.
I have not endured what so many people at RISD have had to cope with, but I can say this much, I sympathize with the students, the students parents, RISD faculty & staff, and I also sympathize with Maeda. Like other leaders, I do feel that Maeda had the best of intentions. No leader would go into a situation and competently, willfully set out to make ill choices.
This should stand as what President Obama has come to call "a teachable moment", and if Maeda is as much a student as he is a Professor, he will be able to recover from this. Time will tell.
Hi, All! Thanks so much for posting this! I'm an alum -- not at all an illustrious one -- from Fine Arts, and I’m almost ancient. I've been reading just about everything Maeda wrote that I can get my hands on (except Maeda@Media). Here is some information that is just so evident, yet I've not heard it mentioned: Maeda attended MIT where they grant degrees in SCIENCE: bachelors of SCIENCE, M.S., PhD in Science, etc. Then he went to Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design where he received his PhD. in design. I do NOT know whether he started as a freshman in Japan; or if he went straight to the PhD; I don't know if that PhD degree is in Art or in Science. Let's say, tho, that he DID study art and design at an Institute of A&D, so that, OVERALL, WE CAN SAY THAT HE HAS MULTIPLE DEGREES, some LINED UP IN THE SCIENCES, and at least one IN THE ARTS. More info: The MIT Media Lab is a MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAM. To get into it, you MUST HAVE: AN ENGINEERING DEGREE, YOU MUST BE FLUENT IN AT LEAST ONE COMPUTER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE (you can know all the Photoshop & Illustrator you want, they won't count, because they aren't Programming languages), AND YOU MUST HAVE A PORTFOLIO THAT PROVES THAT YOU CAN BUILD THINGS (your p/f could prove that you know how to solder, as example). Even more importantly, the Media Lab is an ENGINEERING PROGRAM -- a Master’s of Science degree in an Engineering Program!
Can you already SEE where I'm going with this? John Maeda comes down to RISD and talks about interdisciplinary learning. I prefer to use the phrase, "multi-disciplinary learning" because it better portrays ALL the contributing partners. Now, RISD has had multi-disciplinary projects for a LONG time; one difference with Maeda's vision might be this, however: THE VISUAL ARTS LEARNING COMPONENT OF THE MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PROJECTS AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS THAT HE ENVISIONS MAY BE DILUTED BECAUSE INSTEAD OF GETTING A STRONG EDUCATION IN THE VISUAL ARTS, STUDENTS MAY BE WORKING ON INTER-DISCIPLINARY PROJECTS BEFORE THEY HAVE ENOUGH DEPTH & BREADTH WITHIN THE VISUAL ARTS!!! I may not have said this as well as I'd like to, but I finally got to READ the 5-year plan, and there is so little mention of visual education, of spatial education, of education toward creativity that I fear that a RISD education will just be a watered down version, neither an arts degree, nor an engineering degree. Meanwhile, the man who is masterminding this vision has had at least six years in an engineering program and ADDITIONAL years of study in the visual arts. MIT’s Media Lab is VERY clear about their program: IT IS AN ENGINEERING PROGRAM (I spoke with the department.)!
It IS possible that today's young people may need to get a second bachelor's degree instead of a master's degree in order to do SOME of the multi-disciplinary work that society needs to get done -- but within the curricular organization of RISD so far, many, many successful multi-disciplinary projects have been carried out for decades; usually with FACULTY understanding of the appropriateness of the project for the learning level and for the contribution of the project TO the student’s overall learning!
So, with MORE FAITH IN AN ART AND DESIGN EDUCATION, and with what I just said in mind, RISD could work, NOT to dilute the current education, but to OPEN DOORS FOR ADMISSION TO SECOND-MAJOR programs, as just ONE suggestion to quell the fears of so many people. (Again, this is just one suggestion.) The community colleges have had great success with this kind of thing for years: they worked to get AGREEMENTS with 4-year colleges so that, if a student graduates from CCRI, he/she KNOWS that 4-year colleges on that Agreements List will accept their credits rather than dismissing them. THAT would be the kind of thinking that could be done by a president who HONORS RISD traditions while realizing that changes in learning, technology, and the economy mean that some changes are necessary.
I would like to suggest that everyone GO TO THE WEBSITES FOR: MIT; for MIT Media Lab; for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (where, on THEIR WEBSITE, you can see the same diversity of creativity that RISD is known for; yet, where you can ALSO see how much art and design and A&D education are honored, rather than being dismissed as either inferior to technology OR SUBSERVIENT to it); and, sadly, go to Alfred University's website. Look at the photos of their Freshman year foundation program and compare it to what RISD's LOOKS like! (By the way, I’m just not familiar with any college websites that have the President referring to HIMSELF at all, let alone as often as J.M. does!)
When you go to the MIT sites, you can clearly see what pre-requisites are required from high school students to be admitted as freshmen; for each MIT class; and for entry into the Master's level Media Lab; or, into the Architecture program. I was a Fine Arts major, and I know that RISD architects and I.D. people have ALWAYS had pre-reqs we didn't. Now, some Fine Arts people may WANT to be technologically savvy to do the creative work they want to do, but LOOK at Maeda's books and websites. I have yet to find a project by the man that shows even the slightest interest in the passions of the fine artist, of the metalsmith if they are interested in ornamental work, in the art educator who wants to teach at the elementary school level. Technology alone cannot lead us to expressive heights; yet technology DOES belong at RISD, of course!!! That RISD architecture and I.D. departments are in the same school as painters and illustrators rubs off in important ways; yet, I believe that Maeda only sees painters and illustrators being better served if they commit to the ways of technology. Of course RISD engages and helps develop critical thinking in students. But, in Fine Arts, one of the most important lessons for us was learning to sense the limits of thinking -- we were to work with our materials and our theme/idea/vision such that The Process grew our understanding and intuition in ways that thinking could never catch up to. My best work always came from that place. Right now, RISD IS balanced between the rational and the intuitive in ALL majors, not just the fine arts. But the 5-year plan reads like a plan for Engineering!
A careful reading of Maeda also tells us that he has NO use for Adobe products -- they hamper creativity he says. He is far more interested in students using an open-source programming code OR creating their own, and he suggests that commercialization of created code might serve an as a school fundraising source. There is a student who posted a piece on the All NIghter website who says just this same thing. The trouble is, I'd read Maeda's Creative Code, and it sounded to me like that earnest, eager student had been proselytized SO MUCH that, in a school devoted to creativity, his piece was a parroting back of Maeda's very own interests (well, his interests for the moment, see below)!!!
Also, Maeda says more than once that he taught various groups of students everything they knew about some aspect of digital media and digital media design. Then he says that he decided to have a gallery show to exhibit his works in that arena of work, because he could sense that those same younger students he'd taught were catching up with him. It was time to get out of the game, as he says, before they completely caught up with him. Wynton Marsalis was on Tavis Smiley tonight, and I can tell you that HE does not close off his areas of interest just because his students are catching up to him; no, he sometimes calls up his students to have them HELP HIM "break down" a new musical riff. I find Maeda's stance to be that of a competitor, not of someone entrusted with the education of students, whether they be young and agile, or older! He DOES seem to like to enlist student help; yet, his pattern, from my reading of his own words, is that he "guides" them towards HIS interests, and when HIS interest wanes, or is satisfied, he's off to his newest passion. Altho this MIGHT be the pattern we'd expect in an artist with studio assistants, I do NOT consider it a sound pedagogical pattern no matter which major is being taught.
If what I've stated above isn't bad enough, and if it represents the skewed, narrow experience that a RISD education might become, I do think that a strong digital media department is good to support. Multi-disciplinary projects are a good idea, BUT THEY COULD BE BETWEEN ART AND MUSIC, BETWEEN ART AND THEATER -- the implication that they are always between ART and TECHNOLOGY/ENGINEERING/INDUSTRIAL DESIGN/SCIENCE is truly mind-boggling! RISD has an EXTRAORDINARY Industrial Design Department -- the entire school does not need to become I.D.!! The FOUR THEMES that he lists on the 5-year plan are SO SKEWED AWAY FROM multi-disciplinary works that combine with other arts or with the humanities is to once again suggest for me that the ONLY way Maeda can conceive of RISD is if it becomes MIT South! It's MIT's Media Lab that currently has an Opera on stage; yet RISD students are going to have to slug away at health care issues, etc. BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN PRESCRIBED AS RISD THEMES!!! The illustration teacher whose class did signage for Hasbro/RI Hospital (I apologize for forgetting her name & it is too late at night for me to go check) is an example of how RISD has ALWAYS done EXTRAORDINARY community AND multi-disciplinary work, yet from a RISD perspective, which combines the visual (well understood; creatively realized!) and, as in this case, the truly Humanist!! Please compare her project (it’s on that Health Care & the Arts Seminar website from last weekend) with “Blendie” from another participant (with Media Lab ties). Blendie IS funny in a Dadaist way; but as someone needing health care services, it is arcane and cold compared to the other project I described. By the way, a woman who spoke at that Seminar who is the president of OCAD has a website that she curates because it integrates arts and science. I find the home page pitifully in need to design Help!, AND the science, well, I asked an astrophysicist to tell me if her scientific text about dark matter was accurate and helpful or if it made him squirm. It made him squirm, for several specifically scientific reasons. THIS is what I fear: that TOO much, and TOP-DOWN inter-disciplinary work can wind up with insufficient learning and inaccurate products (for integration with the sciences). For kids who might want to work in a multi-disciplinary way but whose vision runs towards the fanciful and completely hand-made.....?????
My most dystopic view of his ultimate goals: a team of students helps create software that delivers virtual teaching/learning for all majors at RISD (there is such a school already, Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida; its costs MIGHT be comparable to RISD’s; they compress Art History into one semester); small "RISD quickie" student-taught groups do the rest of the teaching; the science and math, liberal arts & art history courses are farmed out to Brown; some of the buildings are sold off, some possibly to Brown; the latest computer equipment fills all the studios; anyone in certain areas like Painting and Illustration is sent back to their home/apartment studios (like it was when I was in school, so that there was NO "visual learning", NO learning of other people’s process -- ironically no interdisciplinary learning at its most basic -- from your peers in your major, OR in wintersession!).
By the way, if you go to some of Maeda's own websites, some of his Home pages look like shopping lists -- no visual input. Then, when you click on the internal links, some of the webpages say things like, "you may have to use an old OS-9 Apple computer, because this image cannot be opened in OS-10. You will also have to use Safari as your browser, if you want Java to work." Is THIS what happens when you abandon purchasable software in the name of "creativity"? While illustration students are working their tails off to have a creative Personal Identity Home Page for their drawings, paintings, Moleskine drawings, with HIS PhD in design he has Home pages like these?? IF he had a fabulous broad, expansive sense of the curriculum, and of all the other considerations at an A&D school, I'd let this go. However, reading everything from his own words, I see a man whose vision is extremely narrow. There are traditions that are in place in the visual education for the various majors NOT because they represent fiefdoms, nor are they there for sentimentality, but because there are things in a visual education that MUST be learned; then there is the time within the majors when students develop their OWN VISION; yet he does not seem to honor those things. I am less certain resting my POV on a statement like my last sentence because I do NOT dwell inside his head, I’ve just read a lot of his writings; but I am ABSOLUTELY CLEAR ABOUT THIS: attempting to dilute a RISD education in the name of interdisciplinary learning, when, in fact, students might NOT get a complete visual education, nor will they get the engineering, science, or math credentials they’d need to get them anywhere, IS NOT A GOOD THING. In fact, altho MIT Media Lab REQUIRES that applicants be able to BUILD things, a RISD visual arts learner may graduate WITHOUT being able to build anything if all their time is taken up on projects that the president seems focussed on. Or, a lot of kids may not be able to achieve the learning curve necessary to handle virtually having a double major. IF RISD winds up with a high attrition rate due to kids flunking out, that will be as injurious to the school’s reputation as anything! Also, the departments, like architecture, that have accreditation requirements CANNOT ditch them! Even the reputations of licensed RISD graduate architects would be at risk if that happened!
He speaks about integrity; yet I fear that he is using some students, proselytizing and evangelizing to them about his vision for the school. The ALSO speaks with great hyperbole at times. (In one place he says something like, “Graphic Design is Dead!”) He uses this verbal technique sparingly, so that it DOES keep its power to frighten people about the future for RISD if his program is not carried out. I fear that the Board of Trustees, many of them business people, may have fallen prey to this particularly successful form of Emotional Blackmail. To see the opposite message, go to the opening page videos about the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As I said, they have NOT lost their faith in or their honoring of an education by, for, and thru the Visual Arts. Their vision is very much like that of much of the RISD faculty. That vision is still here, even if some of the greatest contributors to that vision and to that work have been asked to leave lately. See if you can hear that Tavis Smiley TV show with Wynton M. He believes in All the Arts. He says, “You’ve got to know where Home is. Home is housed in our (meaning the nation’s) Arts.... The Arts speak across the epochs.”
Speaking of “epochs”, can anyone tell me what John Maeda’s position is on the museum? And, can anyone tell me, if he wants to ADD more technology and more interdisciplinary courses WHY is he reducing the number of credits to graduate?! If he wants interdisciplinary courses, WHY is he threatening Wintersession? If he wants RISD to have an international visibility, why have I heard that EHP is threatened (this is the one rumor I’ve included in this piece)?
Thanks Everybody! I apologize that this is so long!!
Paul Rand III
Because John Maeda was in the Media Lab, and because he brought so many people down from there, at least for that Health Care seminar, my focus was on the Media Lab when I did the research that I submitted as a post here yesterday. Today, I realized that MIT's School of Architecture & Planning has several depts. including the Media Lab, but ALSO Visual Studies, AND then Visual Studies has a program called Art, Culture, and Technology. Anyway, the description of the Visual Studies Program and of A.C.T. BOTH HAVE FEATURES THAT SOUND SO MUCH LIKE MAEDA'S FIVE-YEAR PLAN FOR RISD, that I was stunned; YET, BOTH VISUAL STUDIES AND ART,CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS GRANT SCIENCE DEGREES (just what I found out about the Media Lab!). The VISUAL STUDIES (or, A.C.T.??) MASTER'S degree is in SCIENCE!!!!! (Whether or not there is an undergraduate degree, or whether undergrad COURSES are available to undergrads with OTHER majors, perhaps including Architecture itself, was a bit more complicated to me than I cared to parse out.)
*****MIT'S arts program is an arts program that grants a Science degree, NOT a master of ARTS degree, and definitely NOT a master of Fine Arts degree (and NOT a B.F.A., nor a B.Arch, or M.Arch)!!!!!*****
DOES THE RISD BOARD OF TRUSTEES RECOGNIZE THAT MAEDA APPEARS TO BE CONVERTING RISD, AN ART AND DESIGN SCHOOL, INTO A SCIENCE-DEGREE- GRANTING SCHOOL BUT WITHOUT REQUIRING SCIENCE-BASED PRE-REQUISITES OR OFFERING THE COURSES REQUIRED OF A SCIENCE DEGREE??? Does the B.O.T. KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT IS PROPOSED??!!!
Below, are a bunch of LINKS to MIT’s V.S. and A.C.T. programs. You'll also be able to link to student work, some course descriptions, faculty info in the programs I just referred to. It's all interesting in its own way, but that doesn't change the fact that MIT is a university of science and technology!!! Some of the artwork MAY be artwork that RISD people would find interesting, or even directly inspirational -- but THAT is neither here nor there!!! THE ISSUE IS THIS: Maeda's plans convert the academic structure of RISD from Art and Design TO Science and Technology and Design without a course and pre-requisites structure that will educate students thoroughly enough in either area.
Projects can cross over; interests can cross over; but sound pedagogical practices cannot be ignored just because a president has interests he carries with him! On one video, when asked about RISD, he says, "it's like a new kind of medium". I would very much like to enjoy that metaphor, but there is too much evidence that he indeed comes at this from his personal interests rather than from a strong, broad, deep, engaged, curricular understanding, in reciprocity with the faculty, of the educational issues.
Yes, there should be, in varying amounts, engaging courses/programs/projects with technology; yes, some learning can be built around multidisciplinary structures sometimes. There is a digital & media program at RISD, and there SHOULD be! Do more students want places in it, such that only more faculty, equipment and space is needed -- without pretzeling the rest of the school out of all recognition? Maybe studio fees need to be higher for digital media classes if computer equipment is eating up a lot of other equipment funds? Maybe there needs to be a new, additional undergrad major or Master’s program at RISD. Maybe RISD can get reduced-cost access to Adobe (yes!) suites and make them available to all accepted students the summer before they come on board, with creative projects that will help assess the student’s learning in those programs. Perhaps certain majors would require knowing that software well enough, but students who didn’t learn them well enough could have a second chance during intense courses in freshman year Wintersession. Even then, they’d have the summer before sophomore year to get the programs under their belts, or else they couldn’t choose certain majors -- possibly? It’s just an idea. Maybe the faculty already proposed ideas like this?!
I don’t know: are RISD applicants (undergrad AND graduate school) required to have particular computer programming and software knowledge? Does it vary by the future major? Does Admissions know what programming and software skills applicants HOPE to learn while here? (Forgive me for not looking some of this up on RISD’s website; I don’t see info about this in the ?bulletin?) These questions cannot be asked as “leading questions” by this particular president, and knowledge of these programs should NEVER substitute for the drawings required of applicants, unless a student has certain disabilities.
In the president’s plan, would RISD students, who are to engage in inter-disciplinary projects, be required to be as knowledgeable in physics, chemistry, statistics, higher level mathematics, certain other aspects of engineering, and computer programming languages as the Master's degree Engineering students at MIT, or even as the MIT Architecture students who are in those Master of Science programs? Noting that some students come in with precocious skills, NO program should be based on the ease and grace with which any faculty member can work with such students! So, if the answer is, “No,, they would not be,” then, during interdisciplinary projects, that lack of scientific knowledge should not require that RISD students spend more time playing “catch up” in those areas than they are able to spend on their own visual arts development! Working collaboratively with students who know science has been done at RISD for decades; yet the faculty are always there to modulate the appropriateness of the project -- does it truly contribute to “RISD learning”, or will the student have to "fudge" their visual arts contribution to help get the project going? Is the project going to interrupt the natural curve of the student's learning, especially when that challenge is different for EVERY student in each class that any and all faculty members teach!!! Again, I sadly point out the photos taken in the freshmen studios at Alfred to suggest what can occur when studies are so watered down that there is not really enough opportunity for learning in the visual arts!!! If the teaching/learning reciprocal relationship is diluted, then even that learning that takes longer than four years -- that learning that occurs across the lifespan and that comes from an educational environment that teaches students How to Learn -- then even that later learning may be not only delayed, but permanently deformed or truncated!
LEARNING HOW TO LEARN helps students/graduates confront very strong and very real contradictory impulses in art and in the practice of art over time. Learning how to learn helps students engage in a flexible way with the many changes in life itself, as well. RISD teaches this THRU THE ARTS AND DESIGN -- about four years of solid educational practices that serve graduates so very well!
Change is something people at RISD welcome; it is, as I said, something that the FACULTY TEACHES TOWARD; it is NOT change that is the problem here. The problem is that John Maeda has painted a picture to the current Board of Trustees: 1) that compares RISD’s program with an inappropriate, non-equivalent SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, AND TECHNOLOGY program he is more familiar with; 2) while he speaks and writes in hyperbole which causes a probably nervous Board to think that the president’s solution is the only one to bring RISD into the future. I suggest that the Board members read Creative Code, Laws of Simplicity, and his many writings on the web. To do so is to be in awe at the great things that he says that you agree with, UNTIL his personal vision intrudes and demonstrates the actual narrowness of his interpretation of what is at stake and of what the possibilities are. I have tried to spell out what I found in his writings in my previous post and in this one. I’ve based my statements based on his writings and on the websites of the colleges I’ve mentioned, including MIT’s and RISD’s. The Board needs to get away from the president’s hyperbole -- as I said, it acts like emotional blackmail, AND it does not represent enough of the various pieces of evidence that are out there that will offer up solutions. The largest piece of evidence is what is HAPPENING IN THE RISD STUDIOS -- and I don’t only mean the quality of the artwork. I also include the quality of the teaching which addresses the language of the visual arts as well as the developmental growth in and thru art of each student!!! It is THAT titration that is where the learning is, and where the Board should look!! The Board needs to believe in a Visual Art and Design Education and in RISD’s wonderful faculty and students.
There is no doubt that John Maeda is a very interesting artist. But, as for his designation of RISD as his newest medium -- that is an inappropriate stance for the president of the Rhode Island School of Design. A president of the school needs to be at once both more prosaic in his/her relationship to the school, while at the same time being more expansive in his/her understanding of the academic issues and of the participants.
Then, here are the LINKS to:
LINK to: MIT Art,Culture,Technology (ACT) Program:
http://visualarts.mit.edu/about/about.html
This program grants: Bachelor of SCIENCE in Art & Design (BSAD)
Master of SCIENCE in Visual Studies (SMVisS)
LINK to: http://visualarts.mit.edu/about/undergrad_program.html
LINK to: MIT/Visual Studies; Degree Programs:
http://sap.mit.edu/divisions/visual_studies/programs/
LINK to: MIT/Visual Studies: an Overview:
http://sap.mit.edu/divisions/visual_studies/overview/
LINK to: MIT's ACT's Subjects (a listing for Spring 2011):
http://visualarts.mit.edu/about/about.html
LINK to: MIT's ACT's Grad Program (info for prospective students:
http://visualarts.mit.edu/about/prospective.html
LINK to: MIT's ACT's Grad Program (more info about it):
http://visualarts.mit.edu/about/grad_program.html
Thanks again if you’ve read thru my lengthy pieces!
Paul Rand III
Alum
I will leave you with this thought. Perhaps the reason John hasn't been asked to leave so far is because who would take his place in the interim? Surely not the Provost who currently has her own problems as a result of the No Confidence Vote. Not the Associate Provost because there isn't one as of two weeks ago. Couldn't be the VP for Engagement as they have been at RISD for less than a year. Ditto for for CFO from Ohio. So that would leave whom?
It would seem that with all the "smart" hires he's made that surely there must be a good MIT person somewhere on the payroll that could step in and keep the good ship RISD afloat after John packs up his iPad.
I would like to offer the following explanation. Perhaps with all the sackings, "attrition" and new hires that have happened under Johns reign no one currently employed at RISD has the right stuff to carry on in a leadership role.
Do we really need to know anymore than that?
The original post talked about this blog owner's nephew and his love of the Nature Lab, a place I only know about because I overheard John Maeda once telling a story about what an amazing place it is and of his similar feelings for it.
Since Maeda first set foot at RISD there has been an effort to oust him. To say he has "lost" the support of the faculty is misleading. They have never supported him. I spent nine years in graduate school, which is enough to know that academic fights are almost always about departmental resources and protecting the status quo. It doesn't surprise me that Maeda's vision for RISD evoked fear of change. It does surprise me how vicious and uncivil the discourse has been. Which is ironic, given what an unfailingly polite and kind man Maeda is, even when he disagrees with you.
Imagination (0); Imaginative (0); Imagine (0); Images (1, referring to the Library)
Visual (4)
Creative (11, referring to: enterprise, leadership, workforce, leader, search, workplace; process, discovery & innovation, practice, investigation); Creativity (2, one of which are for “collective creativity”)
Studio (7, 3 of which refer to partnered studios with industry)
Portfolio (1)
Technology (13); Technological (4)
Research (61)
Economics (1); Business (1); Science (1); Social Science (4); Industry (2); Engineering (1); Theater (0); Music (0); Poetry (0); Literature (0) -- so, perhaps you can gather just what kind of projects will be mainly involved with the next words:
co-curricular (6); interdisciplinary (13)
The site has never been without a search engine. The search field (top nav, at the right of every page) allows users to search all content, including our departments, with the current exception of faculty & staff contact data. When we relaunched late in 2010, we acknowledged publicly that the "people search" functionality was forthcoming (see http://www.risd.edu/templates/content.aspx?id=4294974557). This delay was linked not, as gbodoni suggested, to inept design but rather to an infrastructural change in the way that this data is being maintained. The functionality will be added to the site this month when all data has been migrated and tested.
It is also suggested that President Maeda built and executed the site on his own. In reality, a hard-working, cross-functional team of several people developed and maintains it. This team currently involves, or has involved, the collaboration of alumni and members of the faculty. President Maeda has of course been shown progress at key intervals and has been supportive.
I believe that there are important perspectives all across this campus. There is also rumor and assumption driving dialogue as well. Through it all, the work goes on.
Brian C, RISD Media Group
Thank you for the belated update, but isn't "infrastructural change in the way that this data is being maintained" just a technical way of saying that the people/staff search hasn't worked for almost 3 or 4 months? Surely it can't take that long to migrate data over from a previous live site? Obviously it worked before. And BTW as a self proclaimed techno wizard it would seem that Mr. Maeda should be able to grasp the notion that an institution without a fully functional website could reflect negatively on the institution he leads.
But then again, maybe it’s the shiny new syndrome alluded to in the original post that really counts at Prov/Wash these days. Admittedly shiny and new is more seductive than boring old function. But alas functionality is much harder to accomplish.
Might I suggest a better way to answer the search engine poke by bodoni. It could go something like this. "Thank you for bringing that to our attention. We are currently working on the search engine features and they will be available soon. Sorry for any inconvenience".
Your arrogant excuse making makes it apparent that there is zero accountability within risd. Or even worse, you posted your response without checking with the Prez first. You might do well to refresh yourself with Connecting the Dots, the current Maeda manifesto.
By the way I checked, and you can't indeed find anyone by name on the risd site.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/John-Maeda-No-Confidence/189925187716225?sk=wall
It is new, so it may not show up yet in a Google search.
Priceless.
ya'll end up runnin J- WOO pastry classes
Anyway, I worked alongside John and his students for years at the ML...
When I first met him he was the exact opposite of down-to-earth, a hardcore Asberger's sufferer for sure. I felt he was pretty rude, but that I needed to tolerate it if I wanted to be part of the ML. After more years at MIT, I learned much more about people with this affliction, the Autism spectrum, and I realized that yeah, they often come off as rude because their social skills are not set up for mutual comfort and gain. It doesn't feel like they're own the same team. This is even true for myself and my relationships. The tragedy happens when we use the same models for interpreting people that we have learned to interact with computers. But you can't reboot people. You can't right-click on them and you can't hide things from them with passwords and encryption.
Anyway, back then, when I was new at the ML, I was an engineering type and wanted to learn more about art, so I paid careful attention to what John (and others) had to say. I continuously felt like I couldn't get it. I am kind of slow, actually.
After years of trying to understand everything, I now believe no one can teach you anything... you have to want it, and you have to try it yourself and ask your teachers the hard questions you can't figure out. Every now and then John could answer something hard for me in this way, explaining to me so cogently and clearly that I was blown away. But he also spent so much time with distractions, constantly buying his students powerful apple computers, trying to fill every available space with LCD monitors, iterating through all popular combinations of GPS, LEDs, MIDI, Webservers, and generally exemplifying every technophilic stereotype. There were some good ideas buried deep down inside what he was doing, but they were always obscured by the fragile compuing platforms on which he did everything. He had an absolute faith in commercial computing projects to provide an environment in which artists could create, but always overlooked the bigger picture. Also, some of this Master's students had the crappiest, shortest, little, untested theses. I was furious at them for this.
At the Media Lab, our whole strategy was based on RISK. Taking chances doing ridiculous stuff and every now and then some of it worked. It was rare that we could produce something worthwhile to an entire market, but common that we would be the first to plant our flag in the ground with a new idea and be able to claim that we were there first.
This seems to me to be completely different from a quality art school like RISD. Art students seem to love tradition... even if they hate it, they learn it, so they know what to do. People like John and also the late Bill Mitchell had almost no respect for the past. Their goal was to produce students who reveled in their naivite. Their thought is that you must be "untainted" by convention in order to come up with original ideas. Bill even said explicitly that his idea of a designer was someone who could capture everyone's imagination before the thought was completed, and get everyone to start working toward their vision. That definition has less to do with aesthetics and more to do with bullying and distraction through shiny objects. So you can imagine my surprise when John wound up PRESIDENT of RISD. I thought for sure he could be a great professor there... perhaps they could start a new department for Media Arts, no? But President seemed to be going way too far. I mean, I've seen every type of art come out of RISD: drawing, print-making, painting, music, furniture, sculpture, etc. Did John really have the expertise to make vital decisions about all of that?
And that's another point about Media Lab professors. They are generally vicious careerists, pushing for the top, top through the massive attention the ML already gets, always craving more. It's as if the ML is not good enough for them... they want more credibility, money, attention, validation, etc. Maybe I'm just a little bit too humble... But I imagine that John could see the presidency at RISD as another shiny apple, another notch in his bedpost, another public confirmation of his thinking, which would make the criticism that he could never bear obsolete. As to why he went and fired all of those people and reorganized everything, I don't know. Maybe it's just a thing powerful people do. Most ML professors are students of power and play power games with one another ruthlessly. As a student, my options were often limited by my advisorial affiliations. The whole faculty at the ML is clustered into angry camps who derive validation in competitive ways.
Anyway, the one lesson I have learned from John is Simplicity. Yes, it seems at odds with everything he does that involves shininess... But if you break it off, and make your own version of Simplicity and try to understand why and how it can help your work, it can be a very valuable design. I think it's clear though, that this idea alone is not worthy of a presidency.
It is true, we are living on the cusp of a new age. Just as print transformed the world, so has the internet, but the latter has not utterly disqualified the former. We may not use printed maps as much as we used to, but we still obey street signs, parking tickets, go to movies, and listen to the radio. Kids still play on playgrounds and go to zoos and circuses. All the old media are still part of our lives. Despite the desires of Steve Jobs' and the visions of everyone else at the ML, there are still plenty of people out there without smart phones. I work with them all of the time.
Please translate.
We can only cringe at what the next "big idea" will be from the advanced minds of BB and John might beThey shouldn't have to try too hard to have a better idea than there last ill conceived fiasco that they spent over a year or two on.
But I digress. Perhaps Maeda's crews thinking is, if we don't think its important, then it isn't. If so, how smug and disrespectful. RISD deserves better. Much better.
The real question folks is when will amateur hour end, and when will the real show begin?
Meanwhile RISD is hemorrhaging money.
1) I have had difficulty communicating with John in the past.
2) When John relaxed enough and committed to spending time with me, even five minutes of informal chat, I benefited greatly from it.
3) The ML attracts and warps people into power-hungry personalities.
There's certainly a fear on my part that as my career gets off to its start that I could become as misunderstood and disappointing as John. Hardcore techie people like him and I have to extend our efforts to communicate clearly (like a mountain stream) with the world at large.
At one point, we at the Lab were all so sad to see John leave, but proud to see him take such a key position. I only learned of his problems recently through another ML grad while boozing. You can imagine my shock when I said something like, "He's done great. I'm so proud of him," only to hear the bad news reply in dim light on the bar room floor.
Finally, as I learn more about RISD through this process, I see that the ML style is very different from RISD. I do not agree with Paul Rand that the ML is engineering-centric. Certainly it is technocentric, but coming from an engineering background myself, I do not find the ML to be similar at all. As I said before, the ML is about taking risks by combining new technologies into fresh formulations... almost like synthesizing new molecules through assay. It's an incubator, a labratory (duh?) My engineering education was much more about anticipating results, modeling systems, understanding why things work, estimating how far they can be pushed and looking for weak spots.
The ML is much more random than that. This may help to illuminate why John's approach is so alien to traditional art students. Paul Rand seems to think it's John's engineering background which interferes with his leadership ability at RISD, but I think it's actually scarier. John's approach is hands off and experimental. Anything goes. Confusing and startling people is valorized.
Do you remember one of John's huge projects- scanning food on a digital scanner? That is not engineering. That is conceptual and/or aesthetic art. The ML draws a sharp, sharp line at aesthetics and boldly eschews issues of taste, focusing on technoconcepts. The only nods toward art at the ML are the fatiguing, shibbolethical assertions that "artists could use this as a new platform." So I'm curious what the RISD community fears most: engineering or pseudoconceptual technoart? thoughts? Because you hired one of the most appropriate people to deliver exactly those two concepts. You couldn't have done worse if you hired a stripper to deliver a Hawaiian pizza to a vegan Eunuch.
I believe John wants people to apply that same surrealist/minimalist strategy (e.g. scanning food) to new media. This can be confusing because as soon as he demonstrates an "iPhone processing video using HTML5 in realtime" (as one person decried a recent Maeda work) it seems to be ditching the concept of minimalism, but that's precisely the paradox I mentioned earlier: John does minimal things atop complex multimedia platforms. Give him a multi-GHz computer and he draws random lines with it like the 80s video game Qix. If scanning food is such a spring of aesthetic inquiry, why use a scanner in the 21st milennium? Why not smear food on glass and shoot Kodachrome in the 1970s? Is there something about the bigger picture, about defiling the scanner, a piece of office equipment, about filling its every crevice with organic, living matter? About rapidly consuming it? About redirecting consumable materials into an inedible, easily-reproducible 2d image? I don't know and if John knows he's keeping his lips tight about it. Is that because he's riding a willful wave of naivite? ignorance? Or maybe he just wants the work to stand for itself?
This irony is not John's alone- nearly every new media artist must struggle with the concept of their systems only operating atop complex technical artifacts (e.g. Java running inside a web browser on a Mac or an iPhone, or MAX/MSP or Microsft Kinect or Nintendo Wii Controller), and unfortunately, most of them don't even recognize it as an issue. I can see it because of the art classes I've taken at the ML, MIT, and Harvard taught me to interrogate the situation.
A similar tension is visible in the work of Alvin Lucier (Music on a Long, Thin Wire), Steve Reich (Pendulum Music), some musique-concrete artists (Murray Schafer), and more contemporaneously, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Tristan Perich. Nevertheless, NONE of these artists have managed to broach the basic limitation that **electronic computation is invisible.** All techno artwork thus far relies on impenetrable microchips which require observer/participants to form abstractions in order to appreciate them. Look how hard it is to teach art students to program. Many of them get it, but it requires activation of a virginal configuration of gray matter.
I think it would be fair to say that John's work attempts to transplant the user into a fantasy world of pseudo-concrete. E.g. once you get into that coding/processing/minimal graphics environment of his, you may process multimedia to your heart's content. And it's seductive... you may actually easily forget that it requires so much expensive, finicky hardware. This is also visible in the work of his students such as Amber Frid-Jimenez (her complex projects intermingling telephony and network video required months of customization of the open-source Asterisk voicemail software), Kyle Buza (his colonization, usurpment and exploitation of the Atari 2600 into the Max/MSP environment), and Takashi Yamimoto (his transplantation of the Processing environment into the web browser). Most of these projects establish alternate virtual worlds in which play and flow do take place, but, only temporarily as they are contingent on the operator to attend to and maintain them: As one poster here noted, once you go back in time and look at a Maeda or PLW project and realize you can't run their code anymore, the collpasing of reality can be devastating.
I would think concepts like these would be obvious to anyone who heeds the words of media theorists such as Baudrillard, McLuhan, or Phillip Auslander, but as I mentioned in a previous post, the ML has no respect whatsoever for these giant thinkers, just the same as some one mentioned that John has no respect for previous RISD presidents.
In conclusion, it would be arrogant of me to say "listen hard to what John has to say" because of my own level of experience and because peoples' families are involved. So, I'll put down my spoon and listen to others talk some more.
Now that John is squarely in the sights to be eliminated he's now decided that he should be a communicator and is opening his office to everyone that he shunned before. By any standard his innovative blog is a complete joke. A blog should offer trust, but it's clear that no one at RISD with the least bit of sense would ever post to it because John is vindictive to the people who question him. As I understand it almost every single high level administrator has been nicked only to be replace by Nemo thus creating a poisoned professional atmosphere at the school and the Museum. So who exactly would be willing to put heir head in the mouth of the lion for a nice little chat with John in his own shrine at Prov/Wash? It would be pretty interesting indeed to see an actual list of how many people have actually showed up to take John up on his offer. :et's face facts, it's probably a little too late for chatting because since the unveiling of his Pravadian plan called Connecting the Dots he's been under siege from every conceivable source that resulted in the decisive No Confidence Vote that is surely the death knell for his twisted presidency.
The simple truth is that John has spun way too much bad karma to ever recover and become successful at RISD. To be brutally honest no one wants him there because his act has worn very thin. And like the Wizard of Oz John is now caught being a fraud when the curtain falls back and exposes the John for what he actually is; a man that fires people who don't agree with him. There is also something very creepy about John referring to the deceased design legend Paul Rand as his BFF. This a direct quote from John on Rands landmark book "...As a graduate student at M.I.T., I stumbled upon a thin, nondescript book called Thoughts on Design by Paul Rand." Now anyone who knew Paul Rand would know that if someone refereed to his book as nondescript that he would never give them the time of day for the rest of the persons time on the planet. And that's because it's such an insulting thing to say about a book that Rand spent years working on. And then incredibly we have this additional quip from John "Paul Rand – the Michael Jordan of graphic design." Wow, that's a deep observation John, not. It's unfortunate that Mr. Rand isn't around to confirm his BFF status with John Maeda because I have a hunch it wouldn't be as forthcoming as John claims. And there is absolutely one sure thing Mr Rand would not be following Johns Tweets.
You also say Prefer A that you believe in "Simplicity" but I would submit to you that is only a word, not a methodology for getting things done. To be sure, positive really, that is the very nexus of why RISD is so vexed with John. Because the school has never received such negative publicity during its entire 134 year history and for what? Simplicity? More pub for John? More Tweets? I don't think so, that's not what RISD is all about. In the end it will be too much bad karma to overcome for John. So like the Yin and the Yang, what is cast on one side is mirrored on the other. Maybe that concept is too simple for John to see, but at the end of the day you are what you make, which in Johns case is a Big O Mess.
They have laid waste to an energetic, positive place which has and continues to be (with or without their insignificant presence) a great place to teach and learn about art and design. And for what? Their greatest offense has been to sacrifice the goodwill and morale of the staff and faculty in favor of their self-aggrandizing agenda. One would think that they have been recruited by competing institutions as highly paid saboteurs; that's how destructive this has been.
That objection of yours to my piece is Fine By Me, because that is NOT exactly what I meant, and I admit I was struggling to express what I’d found. It’s also Fine By Me because you describe the media lab so well, from other answers I've gotten about it. My objection to John Maeda is NOT that HE or the ML is engineering-centric; but that to GET INTO THE PROGRAM AT MEDIA LAB, a student HAS to have an engineering background and be fluent in at least one computer programming language (as I said, I called the Media Lab and spoke with someone who handles a lot of admissions communications.). A BFA and an MFA are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SPECIES, and HE, dangerously, just does NOT get it! I believe that creativity can occur in any setting if not squelched, and if fostered, so I am NOT talking about RISD being creative and the ML not being so. But the terms and concerns are SO different! I did not even understand -- or even RECOGNIZE -- many of the vocabulary words and phrases that you used. Conversely, I NEVER read Maeda talking about the concerns or intuitions of the Visual Arts, including about paint surfaces, clay bodies, drying times, transparency, tensile strength, alizarin crimson, or weight-baring (sp?) walls!! (He’ll start posting phrases like that, tho, to squelch the criticism, as if we cannot compare posting dates! Oops, there’s another challenge that has absolutely nothing to do with a good RISD education!)
I appreciate YOUR piece because it seems to be written so intensely from your OWN understanding. I think I tried to say in an earlier piece that there was something ELSE about Maeda and his work and the context of his work that I could intuit, but that I feared I could not express, because to do so would require that I have an understanding of his whole intellectual milieu. I felt like saying that that’s okay because I’m NOT the president of the school, but that, HIS inability to intuit the intellectual/creative/expressive world of ALL the RISD departments is NOT okay, because he is supposed to be able to AS the president! BY UNDERSTANDING HIS LANGUAGE, YOU wrote EVERYTHING that I intuited but was unable to say clearly, especially about his risky, pushing-minimal-stuff-to-a-precipice kind of behaviors (or something like that -- Sorry, I just cannot go back to try to find it tonight). As I said, I WORSHIP what you wrote because it is what NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD, and you aid in that by writing so perceptively and insightfully!!
Basically, John Maeda does NOT understand the LANGUAGE that is the language of RISD studio life. I’m not gonna go search out the exact web video where he talks about the Nature Lab so I can quote him exactly; but in that video, he says that, “oh, no RISD students cannot use photographs; that would not be good; no everything must be perfect”. I SHRIEKED when I heard that! 1) Drawing from life IS major at RISD; but, eventually, I know of any number of departments where teachers try to get students to see how they can bring their same way of looking to photographic reference materials. What is the Clipping File all about at the library (I assume it’s still there; many artists have their own, at home, if not)?! 2) ALSO, there is such a HUGE difference between teachers helping students to see “what works” compared to pieces having to be “perfect”? Most teachers encourage “process”, not “perfection”!!! WHERE IN THE WORLD DID HE GET THOSE MISGUIDED CONCEPTS? They do NOT represent a true understanding of a RISD education! I wonder just what he taught those business people in Germany when he gave them a drawing lesson?!!! Just HOW is he representing RISD out there in the world at large?
On another matter: As I said, in several of his writings (in some of his published books), he TRASHES Adobe software. I explained more about that in an earlier post. Lo and Behold, guess WHO is featured in the NEW, ONLINE ADOBE, VIRTUAL MUSEUM?!!! My reaction was: WHO is pandering to whom? Maeda to Adobe, OR Adobe to Maeda? As interesting as other "exhibitions on this Adobe site may be, there are ALSO some aspects about some of the exhibitions that made me ask, "WHY?" WHY did the artist (Maeda or someone else) feel the need to give expression in a certain way? At one point (I can't remember if it is a JM piece or not) a human nose is SO vaginal looking that for me, it was almost revolting ... too much information, and the damned thing is talking, if I remember correctly! WHY? To illustrate the cosmic, virtual mind, I think. Has anyone else seen this? I'm sorry, but this is, for me, a PURE example of what can happen when true art and design education is missing, yet someone with technological tools is out there, roaming around, unimpeded! Also, some movies use computer graphics to do marvelous things expressively; but, if EVERY movie gets done that way, it will be like EVERY actor having plastic surgery, kinda (I’m bad at metaphors!). The new Masterpiece Theater has some OLD actors/actresses playing parts, blemishes and agedness showing fully. The series may not be pushing any technological borders, but it is movingly expressive! I don't think the president or provost get this. There are MANY ways for artists to respond to the 21st century; and they are helped if they get an education in art and design, rather than being sidetracked by the misguided hands of this president and provost! RISD COULD STAND ALONE AS THE SCHOOL THAT GIVES SOLID GROUNDING IN ART AND DESIGN WHILE GIVING STUDENTS THE INTELLECTUAL/VISION TOOLS TO CONTINUALLY MOVE FORWARD. Sadly, this is NOT the marketing strategy that Maeda chose because, gees, HE is interested in some other direction.
By the way, I keep meaning to apologize to Paul Rand II. When you posted that name, I assumed that I'd post as PR III, and that others would follow until the Roman numerals got really high up there. My use of PR III was an homage to your great idea, and I mean that!
By the way, would the person who posted something that suggested that Maeda is into some Ponzi schemes please Tell Us More!!!
" "It's like Elmer's Glue and toothpicks versus spray glue," he says, in a typical Zen-like riff from Planet Maeda. "Elmer's is messy and wet. In digital, it's all spray glue. But Elmer's holds fast, and spray glue has no permanence. Toothpicks make real community happen. There's no spray glue for trust building." "
THERE'S NO SPRAY GLUE FOR TRUST BUILDING!
The entire Maeda PR massage may be read here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/155/the-twitterfly-effect.html
Thanks, bearskin, for the fastcompany article about JM. I can't wait until Linda Tischler, the author, gets out from her digital bed in the morning to cook her breakfast in her digital kitchen, then gets dressed in her digital clothing, to drive off in her digital car, perhaps forgetting to lock the door to her digital house! Neither she nor Maeda even KNOW how many PHYSICAL (analog!!) things we depend on thruout every single day -- and if those physical objects are ONLY understood by their creators thru a digital interface with design, many ESSENTIAL QUALITIES will soon "go missing" in the design of the things AND spaces all around us!! When the only sense of touch that designers have is with computer programming keys, the world WILL reflect that! Right now, you may not be able to detect that, because there is still some holistic knowledge around, but with Maeda's tendency to oust people (funny, the article doesn't mention THAT!), soon, that knowledge could be gone. Is sticking by your guns really that important, Board members? You DO know, don't you, that some of you are ONLY under his thrall due to how he uses VERBAL language and how he gets allies to write about him in that SAME language! I don't like mixing metaphors, but I MUST say it: if there EVER were a situation where the Emperor had no clothes, THIS is it! This man does NOT understand what "analog" RISD has to offer! And, shame on any of you Board members who have willingly "forgotten" how many 21st century, multi-disciplinary, enlightened projects have come out of RISD before and without the interference of John Maeda! It's like the faculty are Cordelia to your King Lear!!!
Come on, RISD Board members, you are letting his man throw out the baby for digital bathwater (more mixed metaphors!)!!!
The resulting entity can only be a superficial and drastically refigured institution, bearing more similarities to a for profit corporate education machine. It will not be a place for the truly creative.
hears Hymn Singing in the Distance and dons the Galoshes of Remorse.
They hired Digital Max.
Merrill Sherman tells how she loved Maeda's view "that art and design will influence the 21st century like no other, and RISD has a role in that conversation." Great. Maeda would make an excellent artist-in-residence somewhere, but what RISD needs in a President is not a star but a leader. Someone who can help bring the creative community--already existing at RISD--together. Someone who can help to form a vision for the School.
Claudia Dreifus was partially right when she said-- "John was much too original a person not to have gotten in trouble in academe. The most bland university presidents are the most successful. It's one reason why American higher ed is in trouble." She was right. It was predictable that Maeda would get in trouble because he lacks leadership skills. She is wrong, in my opinion, that that is why American higher ed is in trouble. If higher ed is in trouble it is because it has gotten too fat and too expensive for many to afford. A narcissistic president isn't going to solve those problems.
All that aside, throughout my time at RISD I always saw it as a very Ivory Tower-like environment, perhaps more so than places like Harvard and Brown. The most obvious indicators were the high cost of tuition, the lack of financial aid compared to other schools, and the embarrassingly low economic and racial diversity on campus. These things were especially apparent to me during former president Mandle's final year, my first year at RISD, when my parents and I received his letter casually announcing a $2000 tuition increase for the following year. Maeda actively addressed these issues: he increased financial aid and he never increased tuition beyond inflation changes, even amid huge financial difficulties which were entirely caused by the previous administrations' decisions. It strikes me as similar to Obama getting the blame for the poor economy and high deficit caused by Bush's policies.
All in all, I understand the criticism from faculty and others, but have to wonder if the sense of complete hysteria isn't coming from somewhere else: a desire to protect a status quo in order to preserve their own privilege, something that is also happening in a big way in the country at large. I hope RISD can find a new leader who continues to work toward the goal of making it accessible to students from other backgrounds, but does so in such a way that the rest of the community can get on board with.
Now, there is additional piece on the internet by Stefan Smagula who apparently saw parts of the comments on Natalia’s blog because they were distributed by Y-Combinator Hacker News. In his piece, Mr. Smagula, a software product designer, tells us: “Back in 1999 or 2000 Andrew Otwell and I co-taught a course titled "Pixel, Line, Plane: The Elements of Digital Craft" at the University of Texas at Austin. The course introduced designers to programming at the same time it introduced programmers to design, and it used the DBN language and some Web-based courseware developed by Maeda and his then-students, Ben Fry and Casey Rheas. That I have any grasp of things like modulus is thanks to Andrew and John Maeda.” And then, he goes on to say that Maeda sent his class a message. “It talked about the need to approach technology as a medium, and to think of making one's own tools as a traditional craft-person does. I think I was attracted to Maeda and his philosophy of tool-making (as opposed to tool using).” Mr. Smagula then suggests a “bridge” to help the RISD community.
There are so many “public relations” pieces out there from Maeda’s world, most of them praising Maeda in terms that suggest he never left that world. RISD is a school with MANY departments, many majors, many media; some are more design based, some are more fine arts based. Actually, each department is really defined by the interests of the faculty and students that go thru it at any time on top of the foundational learning that is essential for that particular major (and that foundational part is what many fear Maeda and his provost understand the least, to not at all!). To read these pro-Maeda pieces from his world, you would never know that some students are working in glass; some want to do children’s books, or zines; some want to work sculpturally only with the discarded materials and detritus of our culture. Each generation of incoming students has more digital knowledge when they come in, but many are still electing to work with paint, clay, tape, fabric, etc. Sure, many students want to work in and/or work with digital media, but even then, not all want to invent their own tools. Some will want to, but some want to learn existing programs so well that they are unimpeded in their creation of worlds that might not even look 21st century, but might look 18th century! If I were there now, I would want to be working with the stuff, look, and feel of the 15th-16th century Age of Exploration so that I could explore the roots of the African diaspora. I would want to become familiar with a lot of physical, sculptural media. The world of the digital might aid me in my explorations, and as a student, I was and continue to be open-minded, but I would want to avail myself of studio experiences that I could not find once back at home or off on my own -- the world of the foundry, and of the ceramics and metalsmithing studios.
John Maeda is not just the president of a digital media school; he is not just the head of a large Masters program. His understanding of this, and the understanding of his allies he (or his staff) has troop out into the internet landscape, is virtually NIL. Those allies usually talk about THEMSELVES -- what he did for THEM in their digital world, in their software world. It gets tiring to read: they use RISD as the excuse to talk about themselves as their way to justify Maeda -- the lacuna in this circuitous reasoning is RISD itself!!
As to always wanting to work at the Cutting Edge, Mr. Smagula goes on to say, “basically, most designers want to be known for creating the most advanced designs, the most powerful, sophisticated, and novel designs.” Is this always the case? I think that there is FAR MORE RANGE than that in what RISD artists and designers as a whole are interested in. Some students intentionally handicap themselves for expression reasons, rather than reaching for the newest tool! Some students are still trying to find the painted surface that will match their vision; some are still arguing with themselves about space and light on a surface known for its two-dimensionality; some students might want to work using the soles of used sneakers to best express themselves! It is likely that some ceramic artists are looking for the combination of glazes that will create a color as of yet unknown to humankind. And, altho last year’s MFA show at the Convention Center showed ceramic artists working way outside the box, and brilliantly so, I just saw traditional vessels, by a first-year ceramics MFA student, that were delightful -- both traditional and new!
So, I’d like to say to these Maeda allies who are out there in legion on the internet, please, see that you are assessing this situation thru the narrow gaze of your own interests, just as the president does, sadly. Maeda seems to want digital-media studio assistants more than he understands how to be the broad-based Education professional that a college president must be; even though the Board still seems to take the verbiage that is out there praising him as if it could be taken at face value! That is one of the saddest things -- that the Board does not understand the richness that is at risk! The Fox and the Grapes -- maybe they could re-read their Aesop that if my previous comparison about the faculty’s being Cordelia didn’t work!
We know that John Maeda is putting things out there on the internet himself, as well. Well, one of the places where, sadly and tellingly, he has NOT placed one of his pieces is in the Comments Section of this Fastcompany piece that was written by either Anya or Linda (which? I give up!). WHY would he write a comment on that blog? Well, under his photograph (YES! he might qualify as the nation’s most photographed college president!!), there is a caption: “John Maeda was a surprise choice to run RISD, the design superschool with a fussy attachment to analog ways.” Wouldn’t you just think that, if he were TRULY presidential, that he might just write into that blog, defending the “analog ways” of the school, while also pointing out how incorrect that designation actually is, over all?!!! Certainly, defending the school against the charge of “fussy” WOULD be appropriate, if he were the appropriate president! No fair doing it now, president Maeda, after I’ve led you to the Right Thing To Do!
http://chronicle.com/article/A-College-Unfriends-Its/127334/
"techno fan boy run amok" indeed!
Jessie Shefrin is the latest honcho to resign - today in fact. Perhaps BB or JC could serve as the next provost. Their salaries are probably the same, plus they know how to stroke Johns enormous ego. So what if they don't know a thing about RISD, it sure hasn't hindered them so far. Even money says the next named Provost, like the current Dean of Continuing Ed comes from MIT. Of course John says he didn't know him at MIT, and long time gone VP BG didn't "know" John from MIT either - even though they all worked there at the same time. And no, I'm not making this up.
The school is in complete chaos. Just for everyones 411 Jessie pulled the "Connect the Dots" future plan for RISD that resulted in the 80% no confidence vote cast agains her and John Maeda a few weeks back.
So now the school has:
- No Provost
- No Associate Provost
- No Director of the RISD Museum
- No long range plan (the ill fated plan Connect the Dots that took John and Jessie "years" to develop was summarily rejected by the faculty and now has been shelved permanently.
So the question must be asked (again) when oh when will the light come on over at BRI we wonder? RISD simply is too famous and costs way too much to keep taking it on the chin like this. Surely it's a PR nightmare to contain ALL this bad news and put a happy face on it. One would have to think that any responsible parent of a student considering RISD would know of the strife at RISD since John took over. How could they ignore that, especially with so much money on the line for tuition.
The amateurs that are currently running the place have to see the writing on the wall, or maybe they're waiting for a Tweet from the guru himself. Either way things are not looking good for Maeda Inc, or for RISD.
My oh my, what a mess.
Shefrin was an outstanding Provost, willing to do the hard slogging work of revamping the infrastructure to make work flow more smoothly and effectively. Too bad she won't have the chance to finish the work.
RISD's stakeholders, like any college, consists of the faculty, the students, the alumni and the administration. The Board of Trustees should be trusted caretakers. They should watch over the institution and safeguard its financial health so the stakeholders can continue the mission of the school. The Board should not impose their vision on the School. That is not their role. The stakeholders should develop the vision of the institution—not the Board of Trustees. The President should be the leader and moderator that helps, with the imput of all the stakeholders, to develop a vision that all can embrace. The future of RISD will be determined by how well it is brought together to do the work that must be done.
This is what is needed in the next president for RISD. A true leader that respects and seeks the consel of the faculty, alumni, and students. The Board should be able to clearly see that the School is floundering. As good caretakers, as "trustees" they should take action now to set the course right. Install an administration that can bring us all together. That can heal the School and create an environment within which RISD can reach its full potential.
And let me say now, as an alum, we are a group that has been most ignored and shut out. This a terrible waste. The experience and vantagepoint that alumni have can be a great resource for any College. Take note how infrequently the word "alumni" is uttered on campus. Again the next President of RISD should reach out and bring us all together.
The faculty have spoken with their vote of no confidence in the current administration. How about setting up a way for alumni to vote—up or down on this matter? Christina Hartley, maybe you could help with this?
The Board by its action, or lack thereof is clearly stating that they don't care what we (alums) think.
By the way has anyone seen the "updated" risd views? It looks like a template for Reebock.
Very sad all the way around. Long term damage and deep scars will remain for many years. The Board should be ashamed of themselves but everyone knows they're not.
I think we should hand on for a little bit though, surely JM and his crew will do something pretty lame pretty quick. If the situation wasn't so tragic, it would make a first class comedy.
To me, both "Research" and "Partnerships and Collaborations" seem so elevated in tone (as does “History, MISSION & Governance”); whereas, "Galleries & Exhibitions" seems so prosaic. Clicking onto the links for "Research" and "Partnerships", so few of the tags mention the Fine Arts. Wouldn't it be good and appropriate if an appreciation for the role that RISD's Fine Arts departments play in elevating the nature of all the departments were suggested by an equally “elevated” phrase, like "Visions", perhaps, instead of “Galleries & Exhibitions”. That should be a phrase that just rolls off the tongue in this visual arts school, whether the media used are traditional, digital, non-traditional, or a combination thereof; yet the words "visual" and "vision" are even very hard to find in the Strategic Plan. Actually, each and every art and design project is “research” and always has been, unless one is at the “production” stage of certain repetitive processes; but I read the use of the word here to be a pandering rather than an appreciative bragging, as if research didn’t always happen at RISD; and yet, the term also seems to cordon off the Fine Arts from inclusion when just about every piece made in the Fine Arts departments is research because RISD teaches process, not product. This distinction is what keeps the work so fresh, so “RISD”. Let's hope for a greater awareness of the nuances in language, because that might just be one of the imbalances that is perceived beneath the surface.
P.S. I apologize for my poor editing in my previous post (“because since”).
Sherman apparently had big ideas about Maeda's fundraising capabilities when she pushed his candidacy for president, posting a target for $10 million in his first year. Then the financial crunch hit, and his performance since has been lackluster at best. Sherman, like Maeda, is scrambling to establish or retain a shred a credibility.
Maeda's fundraising is far short of what it should be. Most of what he has claimed to have raised was the work of the departed Beth Garvin. He keeps looking for things he can raise money for, but he seems incapable of drawing in funds for RISD as it is; hence the pressure to "redesign" the school into something he can hawk. He might have been good for the RISD Digital Media job he didn't get, but he's way out over his head as president.
All these disasters worldwide and nationally, natural and manmade (Hurricane Katrina; Haiti; Japan; the Mississippi), they all prove that we need people who understand materials and design, and then, for the spirit, the fine arts, visual, musical, theatrical. There will need to be a combination of the digital and the material, but the material will NEVER be passe. It is folly to believe that "The Future" is singular, and that it will be exclusively digital.
The staff/faculty at RISD did not create this situation of fear and loathing that exists at the school presently, John Maeda and Merrill Sherman are responsible for that. No one that has any sense at all will post on the RISD blog or speak out publicly against John Maeda. The only folks who can raise questions about him openly are tenured faculty because they are safe from his persecution.
I am sure, positive really, that many people will come forward with their real names AFTER Maeda leaves.
Some day in the not too future Maedas name will be regarded with infamy, as it should be. But until he's officially gone we must all keep our heads down and our guard up. Too many good people have been fired already, why add to the list voluntarily?
You are so misinformed. Almost every former RISD admin person that was axed by Maeda has been replaced by a person at a much higher salary rate and in some case by as much as 50% higher than the person they replaced. Everyone knows that.
Let's hope John or Becky asked you to post that nonsense, or perhaps they posted it themselves because nothing could be further from the truth, and they know it. It's just more lies and PR hype from a desperate administration that is sinking fast.
Everyone is waiting for the "Tweet" that Maeda has bit the dust on the edge of their collective seats. And when that happens there will be school wide celebration to the end of "Maeda Starts Here" reign of belligerence, and pompous attitude. Perhaps I personally would pay for the production of a new tee shirt that states "Maeda Ended Here" with a blank space to fill in the date, with zero hot pink type.
Has anyone else noticed this?
RE: the comments on the ProJo blog: For some reason, there are TWO versions of the article that has the picture of Maeda (not the article with the former museum director). All the comments are actually ON the ProJo site, you just have to figure out which of the two, identical articles has the comments. I don't remember right now whether or not you have to look at BOTH versions of the same article to see ALL the comments.
Sorry I'm still not using my name, but I just wanted to send along what I'd found out about the ProJo site. I do understand your POV, Natalia. Thanks!
The more I think about it, the more I think how wonderful it would be if there was a mechanism—a website where the whole RISD community—facutly, students, alumni, staff and even parents could go and participate in the conversation. That is really the appeal of this little blog. The handful of us who keep coming back for our fix have so few venues.
Is Maeda a good president for RISD?
Should Sherman step down?
How do we form a vision for RISD?
Should RISD have 5,000 students—or 1,000?
I have opinions, you have opinions, but what value? My opinion is as good (or as weak) as your's. But if we had an objective tally; if faculty, students, alumni, staff and parents could each vote on a question and we had some irrefutable quantitative information. Ah, now that could be powerful. Maybe too powerful?
Motion: Vote on "No-confidence in President John Maeda"
Faculty vote: The motion passed 194 to 32
Student vote: Unavailable
Staff vote: Unavailable
Alumni vote: Unavailable
Parents vote: Unavailable
I don't know how the community would have come down on this matter if we had all spoken. But if we could only have spoken, we'd be in a totally different place. If a consensus emerged it would be impossible to ignore it. Don't you think?
1) http://www.projo.com/education/content/RISD_MAEDA_05-15-11_4JNUUP6_v48.3125ae9.html
http://www.projo.com/education/content/RISD_MAEDA_05-15-11_4JNUUP6_v47.2cd3700.html
http://www.projo.com/education/content/RISD_sidebar_05-15-11_4JNUV31_v34.2cd04e4.html
The first two web addresses are for the article with Maeda’s photo in front of a black & white wall piece in the Museum (headline: “After criticism, RISD’s Maeda retools his approach”). Comments have been posted on the bottom of BOTH copies of this article, yet the ProJo has not seen fit to combine them onto ONE web page. THAT IS WHY people think that their posts have been deleted -- they’re on the OTHER, otherwise identical page! The third web address is for the article that has a photo of the former museum director (headline: “Views are mixed on recent RISD departures”). There are entirely different comments on THAT page, after that article.
If I hadn’t seen the actual Sunday newsprint paper, I would probably not have thought to navigate the ProJo site in search of a second article; I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that the one article was posted twice by the ProJo (probably just a mistake). IF you are looking at the article with Maeda’s photo, to the RIGHT of it, you will see a column heading that says, “More education stories”. At the bottom of that list, there is the word, “More”. Once you hit “More”, you will come to a listing of articles that includes the THREE articles (really two, as we now know) that I’ve given the addresses for, above.
Thanks for asking! Hope this helps -- let me know if it doesn’t.
If I remember correctly (and I MIGHT, because DaVinci was such a good writer!), the DaVinci piece made it very clear that Maeda had NOT conveyed to the Board that the faculty objected to the draft version of the Strategic Plan; he just presented the Plan to the Board as if everything were A-OK, even though the faculty didn’t even recognize the document as the one they had spent so much time helping to write. The thing about DaVinci's piece was that it was very clear about the timing of events, step by step, and therefore Maeda's Betrayal of the faculty, by not mentioning their objections to the Board, was recognizable for what it was: Bad Faith, Breach of Trust, Perfidy! Sadly, thanks for letting me know!
I hope you (and the other readers here) understand what is happening is that it is a concerted effort by the ProJo NOT to report facts.
Shame on them
Thanks!
Here's the link. Let us all know if Agent for Change's piece (dated 2:19 PM on 5/15/2011) is still on, or when it goes missing again. Thanks!
http://www.projo.com/education/content/RISD_MAEDA_05-15-11_4JNUUP6_v47.2cd3700.html
But I would like to raise a more salient point. Right now there is no chance that a permanent provost will be in office for at least a year, minimum. Also there is currently no Associate Provosts in office as Maeda made them walk the plank a few months back. So who exactly will be the next acting Provost then from within the RISD ranks? The minute the person takes on the position they will be seen as a lackey and another of John pawns. What a horrible position to put oneself in to help a President who has zero respect for the faculty. Thrown into the mix is the very distinct possibility that Maeda won't be around much longer himself and who will Merrill appoint to fill in until they can find another President? Hence throwing the temporary Provost right into the fire.
It's very hard to believe that the Board of Trustees is watching all of this transpire and giving it a big thumbs up. But then again they gave the Shefrin/Maeda plan a big thumbs up and now its dead as a doornail, so who knows what they are thinking.
The situation is so confusing you need a program to figure out who is leading who, when in fact, there is no leadership at all.
Try as they might, neither the ProJo nor RISD Trustees can stop the Maeda house of cards from falling.IT will be quite interesting to see how the nedia, and particularly the ProJo handle Maedas departure. Perhaps the paper will simply say the Maeda has left to spend more time with his family that doesn't even live in Providence.
Thanks for the update!
Former Provost Jay Coogan gone before Maeda even started his reign.
Jesse Shefrin is named to as Provost without Maeda ever consulting the Faculty. Less than 3 year later she resigns to "pursue other interests".
VP of Communication leaves after 15 years and is replace by one of Maedes protoge with zero experience, who is by the way also a VP
The Director of Graphic Design, a RISD alum is fired for no apparent reason and never replaced
The Director of Contining Education is fired for no reason and replaced by an MIT guy
Beth Garvin an MIT crony is appointed as VP for "Engagement" and less than two years later is gone due to her "wanting to spend more time with her family
Hope Alswang Director of the Museum leaves suddenly to "pursue" other interests
Arnie Yasinski leaves his position as CFO to spend "more time with his family"
James Hall, Assistant Director at the Museum leaves for (fill in blank)
Matt Montgomery Director of Communications for the Museum leaves for (fill in blank)
God this is tiring perhaps we should offer a PDF fill it out form?
And now comes Roseanne Somerson the newest addition to the Maeda Team. Lucky her. Maybe they will repaint Jesse's office for her. Might I suggest hot pink, ala Start Maeda Now?
Lets get out our form for her shall we:
Roseanne Somerson has resigned effective _________ 2011. She is leaving RISD to____________. We appreciate her contributions to RISD and she will be missed.
Meanwhile the hum continues at Prov/Wash like everything is perfectly fine. Kafka couldn't even write something as twisted as this mess, and he was a masterful writer.
This is what it has come to. Big Brother is waiting for your reports.
Can't wait for another fluff piece from the Providence Journal.
Without a doubt JM will be regarded as the worst President since RISD opened the doors in 1877.
He is living proof that "social media" means, well absolutely nothing. It doesn't do anything on its own. The medium is for people who have nothing better to do than sit on their cans and check their "smart" phone 24/7, just like you.
Tell us John if you are listening, which we know you are, what is the status of your "Strategic Plan" these days?
How are those HDTVs working out for RISD? And how much did you pay BFFs in NY for the programming that is kaput?
No news on a new Museum Director huh?
Does Beth Garvin keep in touch?
Arnie?
Liz?
Dave?
Lew?
Jay?
Catherine?
Well you get the drift?
Bet BB has her resume out right about now, one would think.
Oh yeah. How are the sales of your new "management" book going for you and your co author? Could I suggest another title? "How I ran a Great Art School into the Ground and made $1.5 Million Doing it."
Could it possibly be true that you are going on your third year? Very hard to believe that you will finish out your 5 year deal, ain't it?
How's life in "The Presidents House"? Oh that's right, you don't even live there. Still using the limo service for the back and forth to Wellesley? Man that must get expensive. Do you pay for it yourself?
Still have your "personality" coach on the payroll? And the PR firm?
What a complete, utter embarrassment you are to anyone has attended RISD. You have literally cost us millions, but alas you are not alone. The people who have empowered you have dirty hands as well.
But you sir, are a disgrace.
Oh your points are so right on that you can automatically check off that Maeda won't hear them for what they are; true criticism. I worked for John Maeda and I can tell you first hand that he loathes any design that is better than what his limited gimicktry allows him to do. For example at one point John thought it was be "cool" to "deconstruct" the RISD logo done originally by the Benson family in Newport. The Bensons are known as one of the preeminent stone carving firms in North America and have long standing ties with the Rhode Island community and RISD itself. So what does John do? He parses the seal in photo shop, cutting it into little pieces and decides that's the way the logo will be uses from here on out. No phone call to the Bensons, no consultation with the RISD Graphic Design Head or Graphic Design Faculty/Dept. Nada. Never mind asking the VP of Communications for the past 15 years what she thought. No sir. Just go with it. This is wrong on two levels. One: Maedas heavy handed approach showed absolutely no respect for the schools seal or the designer of the seal themselves. Two: his cutting up the seal was simply a gimmick to attract attention to himself to show how clever he was. The results? A huge backlash of crticism for desecrating the RISDs seal. Calls form the Bensons, calls from the faculty are all totally ignored. Just use it was the loud mantra from the 4th floor. Yeah but how? Oh, come on they replied. If you don't know how to use it then we'll find someone who can. What about the color scheme I asked. You went to RISD you should know color - and on and on it went.
So there you have it folks. The true thinking behind the AIGA "gold medalist". Don't invent anything new, just restate the old with a lame Photoshop/Illustrator twist and trumpet how smart you are for doing so. But please excuse the interruption John, that is NOT how we do things at RISD. We don't put something up on a crit board and tell the class and the intructor its good because we like it. That is totally unacceptable and known as fluff. You have to have reason for doing it, one that you can articulate. That John, is called process. Something from your inception as President that you haven't been able to grasp. Instead you say people are jealous of you. How trite. I truly believe that despite all your notoriety that you honestly do not intrinsically know what design is and that is why you muddy that waters with technology, tweets and your all consuming self promoting. The faculty knows this, and so does the staff. Apparently the Board hasn't reached the same conclusion yet, but surely will.
Is it me, or am I wrong to think a AIGA Gold Medalist in Graphic Design should have the wherewithal to create a strong brand identity for an institution? But yet the VP that did oversee and create the actual RISD brand left less than 4 months after Maeda was sworn in after serving the school for 15 years, and the Board didn't even blink. That was a very bad omen of what was to come. Soon the Director of Graphic Design would be gone, the Director of CE would be gone, The Provost would be gone as well as the Director of the Museum. All of those people were stakeholders for keeping the RISD brand intact. I am sure the head of the graphic design dept would already be gone too if he didn't have tenure. It's also very interesting to note that John has not lectured at the Graphic Design Dept since he was hired. One would think someone with Johns highly touted credentials would be highly sought after as a lecturer. But yet no. The plain truth is that the printed materials coming out of RISD are at an all time low in both design excellence, quality and quantity. The current "director" for graphic design serving at RISD isn't even a RISD grad. How insulting is that?
But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. The basic issue before us is what design is, and where is it going? Design is NOT social networking. Design is on much higher plane. How we make things and how we design is what we teach at RISD. Here's the deal at RISD if you are a student. You have a good idea, that's nice, we're glad for you. But then you are pushed, and pushed, and pushed some more until your good idea is a great idea. You simply have to know the name of the typeface you are using or you might as well be using twigs my Basel trained typography teacher told me. And he was right. All this is hard work takes an immense amount of dedication, creativity, money and is emotionally draining. But other than your children being born nothing will ever top getting a RISD Diploma. That's a fact, at least for me.
John does not have a RISD diploma and never will. His big mistake was trying to play designer and not act as a real President for RISD, and in the end no one respects him for either.
What is truly missing at the Presidential level at RISD currently is a respect for design unto itself. John Maeda does not truly care about design, because if he did he would not have destroyed what so many worked so hard to create before him -- RISD.
I recently returned to the States after holding the position of chair at an internationally recognized school of design overseas. I was hired to take the institution to a global level in research and make it more competitive than in its glory days. Well, the same dynamic happened to me that is happening to John (but on a much smaller scale) – I was hired for my talent and vision, then (as often happens) you are shot down for the same traits they hired you for! Is this not the definition of insanity?
Faculty didn't want to work or change, senior administration didn't want to accommodate what was necessary to change, even student's resisted change. Their past accomplishments were their entire world and their egos refused to humbly move forward with change. I wanted to make things happen for all the good reasons that I am sure John does and I knew that certain personalities, policies and positions would not sustain what was necessary for change. I knew some “old” cherished courses and policies had to go. I had a vision, I collaborated, I ventured forth with as much tact as possible, but in the end you still have to move forward without total buy in from everyone. I was met with opposition at every turn.
A few people that wanted to protect their turf created the same jr. high mentality of hostility that I see here, and they became entrenched in their viewpoints to “prove” they were right.
If you continue on this path, hostilities and back biting will take over along with all the worst traits of humans, and instead of remaining humble, and teachable things will degenerate into a battle over egos and our “oh so precious design methods” — nothing is possible in that context. Certainly not anything creative!
Everyone needs to take a step back and trust a little in what you originally saw as your need as a school, and what you saw as his ability to meet that need. Did RISD hire John for the titillation of appearing to be innovative and wanting to appear so by hiring a super star expecting nothing to change remain comfortable? Or, did they hire him because they truly understand CHANGE is needed and it is often dramatic and necessary? What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting something different?
Did John take this position from an established icon in design education and expect them to transform everything over night and did he remain teachable to learning from their past experience? John may have made some missteps, I am sure there is truth on all sides here, but the mean spiritedness will ruin things. What I hear here is the arrogance that unfortunately comes with the design field. We all just take ourselves a little too seriously. John is a refreshing genius and that often comes with bucking the norm. From my limited experience with John and his work, I sense he has retained that sense of fun, joy and play that is essential in creativity in all fields from engineering, science and literature to design. Yes there is creativity in other fields! One of the things I learned in my field was never to believe your own press or fall in love with your own work. It is a sure step to ending greatness. RISD is a great school, but much of the cutting edge work I see is coming from other institutions and corners of the world.
So what if he makes a few mistakes, are things we do as designers so precious nothing new can happen since the Bauhaus? Is that innovation? Trust in your talents as designers and the human instinct to explore, remake and rethink things. Be open, teach him how you want to be led, be humble, remain teachable and don’t let your school become yet another monument to the ego of a few once great men!
People, take a step back from this junior high popularity contest and character assassination — you may be right about many things here to be sure, but you may be so right you end up being very wrong in the long run.
"...position of chair at an internationally recognized school of design overseas" Really? Name of school please? And yoir real name is?
A "few mistakes" - actually there is quite a long and awful list.
"People, take a step back from this junior high popularity contest..."
This isn't about popularity, but rather about competence.
And your reference to the Bahhaus is particularly nauseating. Are you trying to say that Johns blunders, and flat out lack of expertise is sort of like the Bahause? If so, that is quite a stretch. Perhaps you should consult Paul Rand Johns BFF that passed quite a few years ago via an Ouija Board to see what he truly thinks of Maeda.
And this just in, the Faculty is not against change. They have to change and adapt all the time to new ways of teaching and to new design concepts. What they are are against is the Twitter king ruing the academic departments and destroying RISDs reputation all for the sake of promoting himself.
We all know you are not who you clam to be, otherwise you would sign your real name. What would have to lose by doing so? The true reason you haven't, or won't divulge who you are is because you are part of the Maeda Pravada team...or the maestro himself.
And I think that seeing administration plants and media conspiracies everywhere sounds paranoid. Is it so impossible that a reasonable person could disagree with you? Or that the facts might not uniformly support your case?
This is indeed junior high vindictiveness. It's also conspiracy theory territory. This is the kind of talk I usually hear from 9/11 truthers, global warming deniers, and UFO types. You are not in good company.
RISD, at its best, is a miracle, a privilege to have been part of. This is RISD at its worst. I fault Maeda's leadership for bringing the school here, but I'm also dismayed by what it tells me the community as a whole.
LOL.
Anyway, his passing reminded me of the years of Lee Hall's presidency at RISD. It was a contentious time, and she did at some point take away the funding for the student newspaper (I cannot remember how long the de-funding lasted: perhaps someone quickly brought her to her senses on that matter.) Anyway, back then, because of the contention, I wanted to know the latest RISD political situation one Saturday, and so my husband and I stopped at Mem Hall to pick up a student newspaper. On the front cover was a pictorial and verbal essay about the sudden passing of a beloved RISD professor of English. We immediately went to his house to be with his wife and friends. The student paper allowed us to learn the news and to act in a way that we thought was appropriate. So, I have taken note that for all the emails that John Maeda sends me as an alum, that I have received not one notice about the passing of one of RISD's most valued faculty members, Mr. Immonen, as I still would call him if I could. Not only was his career long -- I'm thinking it must have been over 40 years long -- but he was deeply committed to teaching students about design, and his paintings are small jewels where color makes space, atmosphere, and surface.
Time and time again, I receive email with information about John Maeda's latest professional news; yet, were it not for the alumni grapevine, I would not have learned of the passing of Mr. Immonen. Perhaps there is something on the RISD website, I thought. Perhaps it IS there, but I sure cannot find it. Maeda often speaks/writes about contemporary media, usually implying its superiority over old-fashioned media; yet, it was a student-run, politically beleaguered newsprint newspaper that shared photos and words from the life of a similarly beloved faculty member back in about 1978. About Gerald Immonen, from RISD, in times of almost instantaneous digital media, I have received NO news. Because John Maeda considers himself a communicator, and because he so frequently communicates about his own news, I find it particularly shameful that this short-term president has not had the courtesy to communicate to alumni about the death of a man who served the RISD community and represented its highest educational values for almost half a century! Thank you.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-the-RISD-Techs/178570815555588
https://www.facebook.com/caroline.s.woodward#!/groups/287663541257978/
How do you ease the fear in people when you see your friends and colleagues escorted out the door for no good reason?
RISD is not a family place anymore. The administration is taking its cues from the Trustees. RISD rewards the screw-ups and ushers good, hard-working people out the door.
Do yourself a favor and look up the 990's (non-profit reports) of RISD the last few years. All this information is legal to obtain.. make sure to have a vomit bag handy..
www.facebook.com/pages/friends-of-the-risd-ptfa/179941658761443
1) Maeda's PR person who was hired to do damage control. So not only is he making a ton of money, but the school had to hire someone to clean up his mess. I must be missing the point-- isn't 500,000 a year supposed to buy a "qualified" President?
2) Where is the money coming from to take care of a $477,000-dollar piece of property in Ohio, now that RISD owns it? Who is paying the taxes, who is paying for the upkeep, keeping the grass cut, the electricity paid and the heat on?
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2011/11/02/university-cost-bloated
Good riddance!
I find it Most Ironic that a school run by this much-lauded MIT person does not even have a FUNCTIONING website: I have for four years attempted to establish an alum. account on it to no avail -- all from my state-of-the art Mac with all new bells & whistles . . . and repeatedly told by his Very Unhelpful Career & Alum. Office that it is MY problem . . . .
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RISD-Technical-Association/178570815555588
True, and all mentiion of the vote of no confidence has has been whitewashed from the Wikipipdia page on Maeda. And it was edited from a RISD IP address. The Maedia group at RISD has been busy.