In the 1980s, Joi Ito traded in library tables at the University of Chicago for turntables at Chicago’s Smart Bar. But his attempt to evade academia wouldn’t stick.
The two-time college dropout became director of the MIT Media Lab in 2011, making the 50-year-old an academic administrator at one of the most renowned universities in the world. Before that, he was an entrepreneur who started a number of his own companies and invested in the likes of Flickr, Twitter and Kickstarter.
A proud supporter of “responsible disobedience” — the lab is awarding its first $250,000 Disobedience Award this July — Ito is in Chicago Wednesday as a Chicago Ideas speaker. He will appear with IDEO Chicago Executive Portfolio Director Neil Stevenson at an event to discuss Chicago’s role in “embracing culture, art and experimentation.”
Blue Sky talked to Ito — whose interdisciplinary media lab focuses on the creative use of digital technology, sciences, arts and design — about the disobedience mindset.
Q: The MIT Media Lab has hundreds of projects happening at once. How do you manage all of them?
A: The good thing is I don’t have to. My job is mainly to try to create a culture where people do creative things and disobedient things, but do them in a responsible way. They don’t have to ask permission, so I don’t have to manage them.
I manage the resources, accounting, fundraising and the 85 or so companies that support us. The projects, I set the general trajectory and I might approve large initiatives, but it’s really a community where everyone can do whatever they want.
Q: Tell me about the media lab’s Disobedience Award. What was the inspiration for the award and what do you hope to accomplish with it?
A: We announced the award last year in July. This was before the election, so being disobedient wasn’t nearly as fashionable as it is today. I think that it doesn’t come naturally to organizations, but whether you’re a university or a democracy, some level of dissent and disobedience is a necessary function for evolution and growth.
We wouldn’t have had the civil rights movement if it weren’t for some disobedient people. India wouldn’t have been independent without disobedience. But, we also wanted to use this award to try to highlight what we think is responsible disobedience, with values like non-violence and taking responsibility for your actions — not being disobedient just for the sake of disobedience, but for the sake of social benefit without harming others.
If you look at the history of law and policy and technology, they’re always sort of bumping into each other. Laws are things that should reflect the norms of society, and you always need to make sure that they’re appropriate, and sometimes you need to push on them.
Q: Do applications for the award have to involve tech in some way?
A: No, they can be anything. They can be artists. They can be about human rights. They can be about freedom of speech. We’re looking for creative impactful responsible disobedience.
Q: Do you feel that disobedience is an important part of tech and innovation and science?
A: I think so, whether that authority is Newton’s laws of physics or whether that authority is the common sense of the day. Back in Galileo and Copernicus’ day, that could be deadly.
Today, the equivalent is losing your funding or tenure. You know you’re risking a lot in order to question, but without that questioning, you wouldn’t have any advancement in technology or in science.
Q: Tell me about your decision to drop out of the University of Chicago, and your involvement in the music scene.
A: I was at University of Chicago studying physics and lived in this little bubble that was in the middle of Hyde Park. I was spending a lot of time with people a little bit outside of the bubble, and later, I discovered the North Side of Chicago.
Back then, that was when AIDS was still a big problem, and in the nightclub I was at, the head DJ had AIDS. There was a real sense of community support through the process of dealing with the AIDS crisis. For me, that sense of community support and authenticity was so different from what I felt, school-wise.
I remember telling my mother, I’m learning more about real life working at a nightclub right now than at university. I will say, those years working in a nightclub gave me the understanding of community, which I have used to manage the media lab and all of the businesses I’ve been involved in.
Q: What was the tech scene like when you were in Chicago, and how do you think it’s changed?
A: I don’t remember tech scene too much when I was there in the ’80s. There were really no famous companies and doing startups wasn’t really a “thing.” I think what’s happened is Groupon. They really put Chicago on the map for the rest of the world, and I think the momentum from that has really brought a lot of energy and innovation to the city.
Q: In your opinion, what role does Chicago play in the current tech and innovation landscape?
A: I think Chicago has a “style” about working hard, rocking hard — somewhat industrial. I think “industrial internet” (which is the intersection of complex hardware and software) is really important.
I think there is a practical, down-to-earth Midwest mentality in Chicago that I love, and the kind of tech and companies that get produced reflect that and are much needed.
Q-and-A’s are edited for length and clarity.
jbartz@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @juliet_bartz
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