Week 1 Post

If art and science are indeed two distinct cultures, I'd fall decisively on the side of art. I entered UCLA as a Pre-Economics major, but no matter how hard I tried, the mathematics never made sense. The arts have always been a strong passion of mine, from fine arts to occasionally dreaming that I can sing well enough to perform. The line between the arts and the sciences is strikingly clear on the UCLA campus (clearly North versus South campus as referenced in lecture), but it was even clear at my high school, with defined “art and music buildings” and “math and science buildings.” In fact, the only educational institution that didn’t section science versus art was in elementary school. This realization reminds me of the Changing Educational Paradigms video that details a study of creativity in children at five-year intervals. The shift, from child to adult, of scoring 98% to a mere 2% “genius rate” comes with the categorization of learning (Land and Jarman). A Google Image search of “creativity and age” shows a consistent trend of a peak in early years and then constant dwindling of creativity.

 In my opinion, the idea of creativity has always been very closely linked to the arts, to the point where they’re typically synonymous. Again, to pull from Google, “creativity” is linked to vibrancy and color, while the idea of “science” is white lab coats and sterile environments.

I am not quite convinced, however, of the idea of two completely distinct disciplines. Web design, architecture, even advertising strategies are all examples of what I believe to be interdisciplinary. I prefer to think of art versus science as a spectrum, for “contemporary art practice, particularly that utilizing digital technology, is loaded with references to science” (Vesna, 123).  Furthermore, “Feyerabend suggests that if we assume that science and art share a problem-solving attitude, the only significant difference between them would disappear” (Vesna, 124). Art is typically seen to be expressive, but political writings or detailed diagrams can be viewed as problem-solving. If there are “challenges in making science relevant to nonscientists… barriers to effective science communication,” (Williams) it is due to a lack of communication between the humanities and the sciences. The acceptance that the two disciples are forever separate is the root of difficulties.