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Named by Esquire magazine as one of the 21 most important
people for the twenty-first century, Maeda first made his mark by
redefining the use of electronic media as a tool for expression for
people of all ages and skills. He is the recipient of the highest career
honors for design in the United States, Japan, and Germany and serves on
the board of trustees for the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National
Design Museum. A faculty member at the Media Lab since 1996, Maeda holds
the E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professorship of Media Arts and Sciences,
and co-directs the Lab's design-oriented Physical Language Workshop and its
SIMPLICITY consortium
. He has had major exhibits of his
work in Paris, London, New York, and Tokyo, and has written several
books on his philosophy of "humanizing technology" through his
perspective on the digital arts.
Maeda received both his BS and MS degrees from MIT, and earned his
PhD in design from Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in
Japan. In May 2003, he received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from
the Maryland Institute College of Art, and completed his MBA in May of
2006. Maeda is a sought-after lecturer on "simplicity" at major
universities and boardrooms throughout the world. He lives with his wife, Kris, and their five daughters, Saaya, Naoko, Reina, Rie, and
Mika, in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Q. How did we arrive at a state when we have to reprogram ourselves to simplify? Is this unwinding the circuit jam or creating a new network?
Computer technology developments are in an ongoing state of improvement, where "to improve" is equated with faster processing speeds and the ability to crunch more data. Like a car that can go much faster than the allowable speed on our highways, the capabilities of the computer have grown out of pace with our own minds. The network remains the same but is now accelerated at speeds and scales that always go up, and never down.
Q. How can we reduce without eliminating? (maybe that is what LOS is all about?)
Excellent point. I think you've simplified the entire book with your question here. Maybe this is proof that LOS works? (smile)
Seriously though, the effort to reduce a system to a state of less, while embodying more, is a tricky tightrope to walk. For that reason in the book I emphasize the need to embody implications of quality and emotion as a means to retain the underpinnings of a strong relationship with an object.
Q. What is the relationship between efficiency and simplicity? And regarding speed, is simplicity fast or slow?
Simplicity can be embodied by efficiency to achieve what I call "functional" simplicity which should be distinguished from "aesthetic" sensibility. This distinction doesn't usually hold of course when you're an engineer. This is the issue at hand. A technologist sees simplicity from a purely technical perspective and creates experiences that may be truly efficient, but not necessarily desirable.
Fast or slow simplicity depends upon your own available time and how you choose to spend (or waste) it. Thus it is a knob on your dashboard of life that is ideally both -- fast and slow. The 5th Law of Differences embodies this principle in that to know one quality, you always need the other.
In digital media, the concept of intricacy seem to be able to coexist with simplicity while maintaining multivalent implications, and produces a delicate effect. Thus when I first picked up LOS, I wondered why your book cover is not simple? It has multiple messages on it and it has delicate and intricate graphics.
In my decision for the cover, it was my feeling that a stark and sublime image would have been ideal however I erred on the side of the 7th Law of Emotion: More emotion is better than less. There is a subtle contrast of less and more as the image wraps around the front cover.
Q. Relativity inspired simultaneity. Did string theory inspire textured and interconnected way of viewing the universe thus affecting our outlook of life?
I think that mathematical and physical models help us pretend to understand our world through the powerful process of logical simplification. If anything, such models help us stand the uneasiness of "not knowing" what is unknown. But I sincerely doubt there will ever be a comprehensive model to predict all aspects of human life in spite of all the technological advances we're seeing today in the life sciences like with the Human Genome Project. The unknown is good, and our pursuit of modeling the unknown shall be everlasting.
Q. Simplicity also contains the word CITY what do you think about the cities?
My secret passion is to become an architect so maybe I will have to enroll in the GSD someday Toshiko! (smile)
I know nothing beyond cities besides the fact that having traveled to many cities in the world, they seem to differ only in the subtle tastes of water, air, and trees. People, and how they organize themselves in dwellings and communities, seems universally same across the world embody the simplicity of organic systems with all their accompanying complexity.
Q. Your book refers many times to the culture and ethos of Japan, yet that value is intrinsically aligned with its cultural background. Besides the desire, how can the culture of simplicity take roots in western culture?
Simplicity in Japan is linked to the fact that it is a small country in geographic isolation as an island. By its very nature, it has to get by with less. On the other hand in the US we traditionally have had the opposite situation with plenty of resources in many dimensions. However certain trends, such as the scarcity of petroleum resources, have led to shifts in our culture of more like the new hybrid gas-electric vehicles. As more resources on our earth deplete, society will inevitably need to adopt the culture of simplicity, in some respects, just to survive.
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