Skip to main content

Week 1: Two Cultures

Charles Percy Snow bridging the gap between Humanities and Science.
I found this week’s discussion on the emergence of Two Cultures(the Arts and Sciences) particularly interesting because of the indecisiveness I experienced throughout my academic path at UCLA. I found myself relating with the feelings expressed by Charles Percy Snow in his essay “The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution”.  He found himself in a conflicting position, because “By training [he] was a scientist: by vocation [he] was a writer” (1). I was able to relate with this lack of belongingness when I first arrived at UCLA, because in my past schooling I excelled in the science discipline, but always had enjoyed writing. This conflict was eventually resolved with the discovery of Psychology – I felt that it was a happy medium as a marriage between the science and humanities fields. 

UCLA Campus Map.
However, after reading Snow’s essay, I began to question why the struggle between these two fields even existed.  As a student pursuing her degree, I was forced to decide between two fields that were presented to me as distinct and even opposite.  This distinction was something I had internalized long before, showing the propagation of this divide throughout society. The discussion in Lecture III even discusses the stark geographical separation between the arts and sciences on our UCLA campus, keeping North Campus buildings for the Arts, and South Campus for the Sciences.  Prior to reading the materials from this week, I would have explained this as basic and practical organization of students and faculty.

The merging of science and art. Illustration by Corinna McAtee.
But now I am inclined to think otherwise – to question why there must be such an abstract and physical separation between the two. Especially when one can present a strong argument that the two fields in fact overlap, and would benefit from collaboration as discussed in Victoria Vesna’s article “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between”.  I understand that there is a movement now to bridge the gap between these fields, but I also have come to believe that this cannot happen until both sides learn to not rely on the stereotypes that each hold for the other, and find a mutual respect.

Sources

Graham-Rowe, Duncan. "John Brockman: Matchmaking with Science and Art." Wired 03 Feb. 2011: n. pag. Web.

Krauss, Lawrence M. "An Update on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures"." Scientific American. N.p., 06 Aug. 2009. Web. 09 Apr. 2017. 

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

"UCLA Space Management System." UCLA Space Management System. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print.

"Visualisation and Inspiration: The Merging of Science and Art." Lateral Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2: Math + Art

The Flagellation by Piero de la Francesca After reviewing this week’s materials regarding mathematics and art, I was astounded with some of the information that I learned.   I decided to focus my attention on the artist named Piero de la Francesca who was mentioned in Lecture.   As shown in his painting, “The Flagellation”, he employed several strategies in order to create the illusion of depth by developing a foreground and background and depicting each object in a real-life scale.   This attention to detail in the proportions of his painting came from studying the geometry of vision.   Francesca was committed to creating accurate and real-world like images in his paintings, so investigating the relationships between the eye and an object, as well as the way the eye would see objects in relation to one another shaped the way he created his artwork.   And although it seems obvious to use math when distinguishing accurate proportions in a drawing, it never o...

Week 8: Nanotech + Art

Lotus flower. I came into this week having little to no knowledge about nanotechnology, and while I still found myself getting a little lost during the lecture videos, I feel like I learned important information about a topic that is extremely relevant in the scientific world today.   In the lecture video part 3, one topic that really caught my attention was when Professor Gimzewski introduced the compound called titanium dioxide.   This nanoparticle has self-cleaning properties that are also found in the Asian Lotus plant.   When looking at the lotus plant with a reflection electron microscope, you can see that the leaves are not smooth, but instead have small waxy bumps.    This design has been adopted in the nanotechnology field to create surfaces that are water resistant and self-cleaning.   I think this technology can and will be extremely useful in several instances in our society.   Being able to manufacture materials th...

Week 3: Robots + Art

Original printing press design. In response to this week’s material, I focused primarily on the ideas presented in lecture regarding the evolution of technology beginning with the industrial revolution all the way up to the present popularity of robots.   In Lecture Part 1, Professor talked about how the invention of the printing press is what sparked the exchange of knowledge around the world, which was vital in the development of some of recent history’s most brilliant minds.   However, I feel that during the development of technology since this time period, we have turned this method that once helped to spread knowledge and ideas into a mechanism that doesn’t make us think at all.   I think this was the biggest juxtaposition that I noticed while reading the material this week, especially in the piece written by Walter Benjamin.   Walter Benjamin             Futuristic robot model. ...