A computer screen has been set up in the corner downstairs at Riflemaker, the art gallery at 79 Beak Street in London’s Soho. On it, you can see a Dilbertesque cubicle and two Saarinen tulip-stem chairs. It’s intended to be a live version of an entry in the website MySpace, except that, as I arrived, there was no sign of the intended occupant, John Maeda, whose office at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology this is, and whose exhibition this is, too.

“Perhaps he’s in the loo,” says Virginia Damsta, a director of the gallery. “He can’t be in his office all the time.” This self-effacement seems appropriate to this show, which is cosily unambitious. Willfully so, really, given that in 2000 Esquire magazine nominated Maeda as one of the 21 most important people of the 21st century and his honours include the Smithsonian National Design Award in the US and the Raymond Loewy Foundation Prize in Germany.