...Heller: Everyone is curious to hear what went on in the meeting that convinced you to take on this role. Without betraying confidences, can you paraphrase the moment that sealed the deed?

Maeda: ...When it came to me in the end, I kept thinking how the review panels, search committee and the board were all composed of crazed innovator-types that wanted to show the world that RISD was the only place in the world that would be willing to make the leap to hyperspace. Sort of “Look at us, world—we’re going to go where no art and school and design has ever gone before!” I figured if they were willing to press the hyperspace button, then I couldn’t turn down the chance to boldly go where no artist/designer has gone before...

...Heller: Will you try to make RISD into a new MIT Media Lab or take a clean-slate approach?

Maeda: Clean slate, definitely. The Media Lab had been around for 20+ years now. It was at the right place and the right time, and served an incredible role in the digital revolution. I prefer to look out further and beyond, but fueled by the incredible traditional and classical core at RISD that represents more of the “what is good” versus just the more technology-centered approach of “what is new.” You see it today so often—we desire great experiences, not just new experiences.

Heller: There is a lot of talk about how teaching—and learning—will be transmitted in the digital era. Of course, distance learning has picked up steam. Do you see the old models of the academic institution changing radically? Will the campus be transformed into something else?

Maeda: Having both will be critical in the future—a great “bricks and mortar” campus and a great “clicks and bits” campus. You’re speaking to a guy that got his MBA online—it was much more difficult and rigorous than I expected as it wasn’t one of those programs where you slip your Visa card and get a diploma emailed to you in 24 hours. Over an intense, two-year experience I realized firsthand that education will, and can, be delivered in the future as an online experience, in an interactive and challenging manner. But the tools and technology for learning are still no better than the teletype technologies of the ’70s, as they are still so primitive. I see great opportunities for designers to imagine the next phase of online education...