>I’ve just finished listening to the latest installment on the BBC interview podcast, which is an Interview with John Maeda, who has left MIT to teach at RISD.

From the BBC website:

John Maeda is a computer scientist who is also good at art and much of his work has been directed at making computers more human. He tells Owen Bennett-Jones that he doesn’t like the way computing trends are going — he thinks technology has run its course and that no one knows what to do with it. So he’s just left the world of computing to become president of the fine art establishment RISD, the Rhode Island School of Design, in the United States.

It was funny listening to Owen Bennett-Jones (the interviewer) try to lead Maeda to make potent statements about the burgeoning role of designers. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Charlie Rose interview with Paola Antonelli about Design and the Elastic Mind was fresh in Bennet-Jones’ mind when he came up with the questions for this one. To my delight, Maeda rolled right past all those lead-ins. He’s either a really difficult guy to interview, or was consciously avoiding the topic. Probably a bit of both…

NB: If you want to listen to the interview, do it soon. I get the sense that the BBC isn’t letting you listen to old audio from the podcast archives. They only expose “this week’s” content. Blech.

You’ve got to listen to the interview to know why this is funny but ironically, I listened to this while eating tofu that was reminiscent of the stuff from my favorite Seattle tofu factory.