The
pertinence of C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures, science and art, rarely escapes my
daily activities. I only had to look down at my drink to read "While no
Mona Lisa, Vanilla Light is truly a work of art with a little science thrown in
for good measure.”
Monster pronouncing that their drink "sets a new standard for taste and effectiveness."
All
too often people express the phrase “Thank God I’m a North/South-campus major”
to accentuate their incompatibility with a certain concept/class as an
extension of their natural academic passions for either of the two cultures.
Each camp gets food engineered for each of their unique, specific needs.
Just kidding.
Or not even concerning themselves with any implications or consequences
.http://bestuff.com/stuff/dexters-laboratory
I
followed the advice of several counselors that despite the “production-line”
education I had been subjected to and would continuously be educated under, such
a straightforward lifestyle would not be necessary to get me into medical school. They
promised me that the experiences I could attain from humanities classes/majors
in combination with the sciences would make me an ideal candidate; essentially,
I would hopefully be obtaining the “divergent thinking” Ken Robinson hopes we
can implement into our society, even though I do feel “anaesthetized” in my
required science classes at times.
We should be saying "I have some ideas!" instead of "I have an idea!" but currently, education severely limits that capability.
http://www.evolveidea.com/creativity/divergent%20thinking.php
http://www.evolveidea.com/creativity/divergent%20thinking.php
Apple's
Mac vs. PC campaign, an arms race between old-school nerds and young hip
artists, may seem to be analogous to the Two Cultures. I would like to point
out that both systems achieve the same goals: one may use either to create/edit
digital images, write code for programs, compose a pop song, engineer 3D objects,
etc. The laptop ads embody Kelly's Third (Nerd) Culture of knowing how to use technology,
having creation dominate scientific testing and artistic analysis.
Neither systems are just expensive Facebook machines.
Technology’s
influence is a breakaway from “mechanical” learning and will allow people
follow Bohr’s principle of “originality from creativity” and may even motivate
technology-users to appreciate both cultures simultaneously.
Theo Jansen's Strandbeests are environment-reacting machines based on artistic vision, following his own saying "The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKyHmjyrkA
The
Left/Right-Brained concept, as mentioned by Professor Vesna, grips many
Internet visitors that see it as an easy description of their predispositions
and talents and have yet to accept it as a physiological fallacy. Interestingly
enough, it has been applied toward creating beautiful visual, artistic posters
that incorporate the real science behind the workings of each hemisphere,
fusing together the ideas it sets out to segregate.
A campaign artist shows the Mercedes-Benz's application of people of both cultures to their automobile line.
Qualitative traits are apparently mostly attributed to either one brain hemisphere or the other.
http://www.onlinecollege.org/left-or-right-brain
Sources:
Aviyam, Gil, and Lena Guberman. Mercedes Benz: Left Brain - Right Brain, Passion. Digital image. Ads of the World. Mediabistro, Feb. 2011. Web. 27 June 2013.
BMW Car Commercial Theo Jansen Kinetic Sculpture - 2013 New Car Review HD. Dir. BMW. Perf. Theo Jansen. New Car Review. Youtube, 2 Apr. 2013. Web. 27 June 2013.
Bohm, David. "On Creativity." Leonardo 1.2 (1968): 137-49. JSTOR. Web. 27 June 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1571951>.
Digital image. UCLA Restaurants. Regents of the University of California, 2013. Web. 27 June 2013.
Divergent Thinking. Digital image. Evolveidea,com. Evolveidea,com, 2010. Web. 27 June 2013.
Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture." Science 279.5353 (1998): 992-93. Sciencemag.org. AAAS. Web. 27 June 2013.
Kirov. Dexter's Laboratory. Digital image. Bestuff. Bestuff, 2008. Web. 27 June 2013.
LEFT VS. RIGHT BRAIN. Digital image. OnlineCollege.org. Online Colleges, 5 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 June 2013.
Monster Energy Drink Collection: U.S.A. Monster Vanilla Light. Digital image. Monster Energy Drink Collection: U.S.A. Facebook, 28 July 2012. Web. 27 June 2013.
RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Dir. RSA. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. The RSA. Youtube, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 27 June 2013.
Snow, C.P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Cambridge University, Cambridge. 1959.
Theo Jansen's Strandbeests - Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention Episode 1 Preview - BBC One. Dir. BBC. Perf. Theo Jansen. BBC. Youtube, 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 27 June 2013.
Theps.net. Science vs Art. Digital image. The People Speak! Flickr, 5 Mar. 2010. Web. 27 June 2013.
Vesna, Victoria. "TwoCultures Pt2." Lecture. Uconlineprogram. Youtube, 31 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 June 2013.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteYou really brought up some great points as well as examples/analogies. I didn't think of the Windows/Mac commercial to compare this lesson to. Also the concept of the two sides of the brain is always sparked my interest. This has also got me thinking. Why do schools like UCLA make it so that we experience one field? Schools, especially like UCLA, with it's great reputation, should implement the idea of the third culture that incorporates science and art into the campus. That would be a whole new experience not only education wise, but also social wise.
Thanks for looking it over, Suk Li!
DeleteWell, I used the Windows/Mac analogy because I was thinking of looking around my classrooms and seeing what kind of laptops people had, either PCs or Macs, and wondered why each person would buy one or the other.
Haha as someone who somewhat learned the complex inner workings of the brain, it always frustrated me to hear people incredibly convinced of the left-right brain theory.
I think UCLA and other institutions want to perfect students' mastery of a subject so that they, as individuals, carry out the reputation of having professional knowledge and therefore preserve UCLA's own reputation of grooming people into such.
Through the General Education requirements and also ones placed within each individual major, I think UCLA does attempt to make science and art meet wherever they can while still maintaining students on their overall subject matter focus. I do think UCLA does pretty well in making graduates that have a unique, specialized form of thinking and yet have adequate knowledge of a number of other subjects to be a well-rounded person.
Francis,
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you mentioned that you feel “anaesthetized” in the required science classes at times because I think that's a very common experience for most science majors, myself included. I agree with you and Suk Li that being well rounded is very important and should be fostered by the university system. I'm not sure though that having to take five GEs necessarily makes us any more well rounded. We take random classes that don't necessarily spark our interest but that fit in our schedule and there's absolutely no continuity. Aside from the freshman cluster classes, there is almost no chance of taking two classes on a topic that you really liked because more than likely you would have already filled in that GE category requirement and wouldn't have room in your schedule to take the class for "fun". I'm really hoping that the whole GE requirement system gets overhauled somewhere in the near future and becomes a much bigger and flexible part of the curriculum. If people are interested in learning one thing and one thing only, that's 100% possible at a trade school and that's not really what the university system was designed to do.
Victoria,
DeleteHm, I see what you mean about the trade schools. I already think that some of our core science classes are a bit unnecessary for some career paths, so maybe the university should begin to look at individual career goals so they can minimize the number of requirements and allow for classes "fun."
I suppose since the university may expect a certain level of fickleness from students they want to give students a broad range of applicability with their educational achievements, but still I don't think it's all that helpful, or maybe even worth it for all of these tuition costs!
I am definitely part of those people you say only take classes to fulfill requirements - requirements that don't even interest me - so planning classes is always frustrating. It's definitely a bit disheartening when I hear North Campus friends saying "OOOO which class should I take?!" when I already have my entire 4 years planned for me.
Hello Francis,
ReplyDeleteOverall, I thought your blog post was engaging, funny, and comprehensive about the key points brought up in last week's readings and lectures. You tied in your personal life and experiences well with the past week's topics, and your links, videos, and images were relevant to those topics. My only critique is that although you had a great hook for your introduction, you appeared to have petered off in the end of your blog post, making it appear inconclusive.
My question to you is: Is there only two cultures in our society, just like what C.P. described? Or would you agree with Professor Vesna that there is a third distinct culture (which C.P. Snow also predicted)?
Thanks, Karen! The topics I wanted to talk about and the references I wanted to make were all pretty scattered about when I started writing the blog post, so I reordered them and tied them all together as well as I could - but I couldn't manage to do that for me last point about the Left/Right-brain concept due to the word count constraint. But I just absolutely had to throw it in there, sorry! I'll definitely make the end flow better next post.
DeleteI really feel like there are three cultures, following what Kelly said about technology being the third. Which goes to say that it isn't what Snow thought as some sort of mediator between the two, but something different entirely. I really think that technology has allowed for a special source of creativity and pursuit of knowledge that neither art nor science encompasses.