MIT Media Lab prof John Maeda is the new President at RISD

Pretty cool when the first thing the new president of the Rhode Island School of Design does is make a video introducing himself. Maeda is a world-renowned digital artist and designer; his latest project was a limited edition shoe for Reebok.

His bio is here ... and Maeda's blog is here.

Videos from Last Month's Business Innovation Factory Event

Lots of New England innovators spoke at the Business Innovation Factory gathering last month in Rhode Island... among them:

- Clay Christensen from HBS
- Dave Balter from BzzAgent
- Bill Herp from Linear Air
- Robin Chase from GoLoco
- Denise Nemchev from Stanley Bostich (yes, the stapler-maker)

Videos are here. I had a laugh hearing Clay Christensen describe himself as the Jewish mother of the business world -- always worried, even when things are going well for a company.

When I say 'I live at the mall,' I really mean it

I consider artists part of the innovation economy here in New England, pushing all of us to think and see in different ways...

...Which is why I love this story: "Artists get probation for building secret mall apartment." From the AP story:

Michael Townsend, 36, said he and seven other artists built the apartment in a 750-square-foot loft in the parking garage [of the Providence Place Mall] four years ago and lived there for up to three weeks at a time while documenting mall life.

The apartment included a sectional sofa and love seat, coffee and breakfast tables, chairs, lamps, rugs, paintings, a hutch filled with china, a waffle iron, TV and Sony Playstation 2 -- although a burglar broke in and stole the Playstation last spring, Townsend said. The artists built a cinderblock wall and nondescript utility door to keep the loft hidden from the outside world.

Providence Journal columnist Bob Kerr quips, "The retail mecca had an artist-in-residence program and didn’t even know it."

You can see video and photos of the project here.

(Of course, some mall operator, somewhere, is now imagining the opportunity: if people love the mall so much, why not build time shares there that they can buy into?)