johnmaeda

Professor Lindsay French in our History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences department dropped by a pre-release DVD of Krom Akphiwat Phum: Rural Development in Battambang Province -- her sabbatical collaboration with Professor Peter O'Neill in our FAV department. RISD's strong internationalism is represented by the diversity of our faculty's interests--I think I have encountered almost every country in some shape or form here at RISD. Congratulations and thanks for introducing me to  Cambodia, Lindsay and Peter! -JM

Be sure to catch the beautiful work of RISD faculty members Holly Hughes, Randa Newland, Jean Blackburn and Wendy Edwards at the Cohen Gallery at the Granoff Center while you still can -- through Friday, April 19th.-JM

Professor Shanth Enjeti in our Illustration Department shared with me the above trailer for a project that centers on the creation of two fictional artists and an unfinished sequential art project they were developing in the early 1970s. You can see further developments upcoming at this site. Thanks Shanth! -JM

Congratulations to Professor Cyrus Highsmith in our Graphic Design department for two of his typefaces being named in Typographica's best of 2012! Bravo Heron and Serge from site! -JM

Professor Randy Willier's famed "Shirt Show" in our Illustration Studies Building — set for an ambitious upcoming renovation— was jam packed (as usual) with T-shirt motifs ranging from panda bears with antlers, in-your-face sayings, and sheer beauty of patterns. Congratulations Randy and students! -JM

Take a journey with me through a walk around campus to see where this bit of art came from ... -JM

PS Even though all of our facilities are fine, classes are canceled today because many of our employees cannot get to work today. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, tomorrow we will all be back to school. Our Dean of Students, Dr. Jerri Drummond, shares that, “All essential services for students continue despite inclement weather which include those provided by Facilities, Public Safety, Dining Services, Central Control Dispatchers and Residence Life staff. Continue to check the http://emergency.risd.edu site for any updates.”

RISD artists quickly after the storm, rest(art) their art. -JM

Professor Liliane Wong, head of our Interior Architecture department, shared with me the above movie:

At RISD there's always something new to be imagined and made (sur)real. -JM

Professor Ann Fessler in RISD's Photography Department let me know about her new film A GIRL LIKE HER screening at the upcoming Rhode Island International Film Festival on Saturday, August 11, at 2:00 PM. Congratulations on the new film Ann! -JM

I had the good fortune of stopping by the reception for our graduating Fine Arts students. There, Dean of Fine Arts Anais Missakian gave an elegant opening speech followed by awards to students in each department. -JM

Tina Roth Eisenberg (aka @swissmiss) sent me this photo semi-live from New York where our collaboration with Creative Mornings to turn STEM to STEAM in 30 cities around the world has just launched. Stay tuned! -JM

This week I sat with professors in RISD's Photography Department to chat about one of my favorite topics — visual literacy — a bug I picked up long ago from Donis Dondis' landmark book on the subject, and am proud to see it practiced and reinvented so bravely by our professors and students in Photography. As the home of the late legendary photography giants Professors Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, our rich traditions in image-making via the very first major disruptive technology shift in the visual arts — remember, the camera was to painters as the iPhone is to everything now — has especially relevant intellectual foundations for today's digitally-confused visual artists. As Professor Eva Sutton, a recent co-host of one of our Shared Voices Presidential Speaker Series, put it so aptly: "There isn't anything that isn't a camera anymore." Indeed. -JM

This page is no longer linked from the front page of my first research group at MIT, the Aesthetics and Computation Group. I found it accidentally via Twitter. It's interesting to find such an old page, and to be reminded how I thought back then. -JM

Human powered computer experiment from 1993. Simulating the operation of a mouse-driven computer with various "actors" enacting the disk drive, the CPU, the mouse driver, and so forth.