CP Snow discusses the concept of “Two Cultures”: the
literary and the scientific. He both defines the dichotomy and criticizes it.
No individual is so well-defined as just a scientist or a literary
intellectual. Many people are a blend and even more have been so marginalized
by the education system that they feel they fit neither category (as explained
in the RSA video). Wilson argues that art and science are indistinguishably
linked and I agree. Artistic innovation follows scientific innovation (e.g.
painting took on a new style once photography emerged as a way to capture life
as it is commonly seen) and even in school, we use art projects to learn
science (e.g. the famous styrofoam ball cell models).
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| "Bar at the Folies-Bergère" - Edouard Manet |
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| Styrofoam Ball Cell Model |
I entered UCLA as a MIMG major, which is undeniably
scientific. But in my third year I switched to psychology, which many consider
a sort of “no man’s land.” I am constantly defending my major from students in
the “harder” sciences because psychology is in the Life Sciences department, is
located in South Campus, and requires extensive knowledge of biochemistry and neuroanatomy.
While I do feel like a kid playing dress-up when I wear my white lab coat in
the lab I work in, psychology is science. It simply deals with more abstract
concepts and required intense creative thinking. Much like art, the wildest
ideas in psychology are often the best.
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| Simplified Neuroanatomy |
In the Pinker interview, he pointed out a concept that has
always bothered me: that it is fine to know nothing of science. I personally do
commit the side-eye when someone makes an obviously incorrect comment about art
or literature, because I was blessed growing up with ballet, opera, theater,
and art. But I also abhor when other makes comments such as “I was never really
good at that science stuff.” I feel that kids are too easily separated into “scientific-minded”
and “not.” Everyone has the capacity to be a scientist. Science is art and no
one walks around with only half a brain (ignoring the obvious incorrectness of
the right-brain/left-brain fallacy.)
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| An Anatomically-Incorrect Brain |
Graham-Rowe, Duncan. "John Brockman: Matchmaking with
Science and Art." Wired 3 Feb. 2011. Web.
"What Is Modern Art?" MoMA Learning. Museum of Modern Art, Web.
RSA Animate - Changing Education
Paradigms. Youtube. The Royal Society of Arts, 14 Oct. 2010. Web.
Wilson, Stephen. Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology. 2000. College Art Association Meetings, NYC.
While I do agree many arts do in fact follow the innovation of technologies through science, I don't think it can be concretely labeled that the two are "indistinguishably linked." As a engineering major, with potentially high bias, I feel like I have very little exposure to the arts within my education process. Much of my education is focused strictly on the hard sciences which deprives members of my major the artistic appreciation and education. Any art exposure would be taken up on my personal time such as practicing musical instruments at home. Perhaps a more open label would be that the humanities are simply "linked" where they continuously influence and change each other.
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to you. I also entered UCLA as a MIMG major and switched to Psychology. We are lucky to have the opportunity to take a wide variety of classes for our major, without being confined to all science or all humanities classes. It would be nice for kids growing up to start learning about the incorrectness of the left brain/right brain dominance idea. Instead they should be taught that they can be interested in the arts and sciences at the same time. At the college level, I am glad that general education classes give students the opportunity to take classes that they normally wouldn't be exposed to in their majors. Sure, it's not a lot of exposure, but it is better than nothing!
I feel the same way in terms of having to defend my major against people who deem they have harder ones. My major is history and although it is not a science I feel as though it's hard in its own ways. I like history because I am able to explore my artistic side much like you are able to with psychology. I know the people in the "hard sciences" wouldn't want to hear this s but I think their minds are limited by what they are focusing on. They need to step back and think a little outside the box.
ReplyDeleteWhile I completely agree that the left-right brain assumptions are false, I think it is a really interesting connection to draw with this topic because I think that it comments on the common misconceptions and stereotypes seen between the literary/artsy and the scientific. Also, the connection really highlights the point in lecture about the divide being artificial- exactly how you point out that no one is actually "left brained" or "right brained", people utilize both aspects in both art and science, as both artistic and scientific aspects are needed in both specialties.
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI get what you mean about having to defend psychology as a science. I think that part of the problem is that we're brought up in a society and on an educational system that emphasizes the differences between social sciences and what is considered STEM. There's an increasing emphasis on trying to improve STEM education in our country in order to catch up to other nations' technological advances, but I think this comes at a cost of underestimating the power of skills that one can gain from exposure to social sciences and "the arts". For example, I have a friend who's an engineering major who pointed out to me that it's incredibly important to have good public speaking skills in order to get your point and research across to other people, but our educational system isn't really successful in combining that with STEM education so far!
(First comment didn't publish, hopefully this doesn't repeat) It's interesting how you're trying to defend psychology as a science when this class is trying to defend "art" as a science and vice verse. Which is probably a farther stretch than comparing psychology to "science". I've been doing physiology research for the past several years now but have recently picked up a gig as an art sales rep. Basically, I sell art to large companies like Target and Home Goods. Anyway, I've found that the design process of the designers is much like the scientific research process that I've been trained to learn at UCLA. Both designers and myself try to create something new or redefine something old. I guess the goal of this Two Cultures unit was to defend the notion that we can all be the same.
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