Maeda Media

"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 humor and expression that brings out the best in computers and art."--Nicholas Negroponte

John Maeda is one of the world's leading experimental graphic designers and is quickly becoming a digital culture icon. His early preoccupation with the intersection of computer programming and digital art has resulted in a fascinating, interactive, and stunningly beautiful collection of work. Maeda has pioneered many of the key expressive elements that are prevalent on the web today. Among his most well-known works are The Reactive Square, which features a simple black square on a computer screen that changes shape if one yells at it, and Time Paint, in which paint flies across the screen. He has created innovative, interactive calendars, digital services, and advertisements for companies such as Sony, Shiseido, and Absolut Vodka.

This is the first publication to present a complete overview of Maeda's work and philosophy. A glorious visual exploration of ideas and graphic form, Maeda @ Media takes you through Maeda's beginnings in early computerized printouts, to his reactive graphics on CD-ROM, to his dynamic experiments on the web, to his pedagogical approach to digital visual art, and finally to his overarching quest to understand the very nature of the relationship between technology and creativity. Six thematic chapters provide an overview of his entire career and research. But this is not just a catalog of older work: interspersed between each chapter is a new visual essay that has been created exclusively for this publication to underline each of the major themes.

Coming together in a massive 480 pages, printed in a dazzling array of color combinations on three different kinds of paper, the result is a manifesto, a finely crafted manual and inspiration sourcebook all in one.

With over 1000 illustrations.

John Maeda is Sony Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and Director of the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the M.I.T. Media Lab. His media work and emerging philosophy have been profiled in the New York Times, Print, I.D., and numerous other publications worldwide. He is the recipient of the 1999 DaimlerChrysler Design Award for his contributions to visual culture and author of Design by Numbers, an introductory text in computer science for the mathematically challenged.

Nicholas Negroponte is Director of the M.I.T. Media Lab and author of the best-seller Being Digital.