Maeda @ Media - Softcover

John Maeda

4.18

161 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0500282358 ISBN 13: 9780500282359

Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2000

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Hailed as one of the `21 Most Important People of the 21st Century' by Esquire magazine in recognition of his contribution to contemporary visual culture, John Maeda's mission is to forge links between computer science and the graphic arts. With his fascination for the untapped artistic power of computer programming and his conviction that the computer is not merely a tool but a powerful means of expression, Maeda has produced work that sits artfully between abstraction and craftsmanship. An exploration of ideas and graphic form and a compendium of experience and experimentation that has taken a decade to gather, maedais the first publication to present Maeda's entire output and to illuminate the philosophy and practice that drives it. At once a manifesto, a finely crafted manual and an inspirational sourcebook, this magnificent volume is destined to become a cornerstone of visual culture in the 21st century.

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Review:

John Maeda is a disgustingly renaissance kind of guy--he studied computer science at MIT and then went to art school in Japan, returning to the US to work with designer Paul Rand. He is, unsurprisingly, director of the MIT Media Lab's Aesthetics and Computation Group.

What this all means is if you fancy judging his book, maeda@media, by it's intricate, beautiful cover, or indeed by any one of its gorgeous pages, feel free to do so. It showcases Maeda's work over the past decade, and--divided into 12 chapters such as "space" and "noise"--very stunning it is, too, despite a rather gratuitous intro by that ubiquitous new-media maven, Nicholas Negroponte.

Maeda identifies the main challenge in juxtaposing aesthetics and computational data as resolving the tension between simplicity and the complexity that inevitably results "when you attempt to reduce an already simple situation or form". If this much theory makes you anxious, fret not: Maeda is no preachy prima donna, and the book is supremely practical. As he observes, he once found himself "in the midst of a struggle to reconcile my romantic notions of design with the considerably less idealistic realization that design was nothing more than another way to make a living". --Liz Bailey

Review:

'John Maeda deconstructs the digital world with the earned authority of an M.I.T.-trained computer scientist and a card-carrying artist. Being ambidextrous with Eastern and Western cultures, he can see things most of us overlook. The result is a humour and expression that brings out the best in computers and art' - Nicholas Negroponte

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