Week 1 | Two Cultures | π
“Schools are organized like factory lines [...] separate facilities specialized in special subjects, educating children in batches [...]”. These words instantly put me into deep thought. The division between the arts and sciences begins the moment educators ask students, “Are you a science and math person, an English and history person, or an art person?”. Within my K-12 journey, I noticed our academic strengths were identified based on which “category” we were better at. We were either known to be the math genius, the creative artist, or the bookworm. Rarely were these skills combined, rather it often seemed like students could be only good at one category.
North vs South Campus/Nitya Tak and Noah Danesh
I find this idea be dragged into UCLA’s campus as well. Based on my observations, it’s a habit for students to defend their academic strengths and areas of growth by using the major as the reason. For instance, many south campus majors say things like, “Yeah, no. I’m a STEM major, so I prefer tests. I suck at writing essays, my writing skills aren’t that good”, while north campus majors often say things like, “I hate math. I prefer reading and writing essays. I’m not good with numbers”. Why do we do this? Why do we only limit our skills and knowledge to one category?
“Practitioners in both areas should build bridges”. I agree with what C.P. Snow is arguing in this quote. As Vesna greatly explains it, artists who are inspired by scientific innovation and scientists who are inspired by artistic and literary innovation must collaborate and work together. It is my belief that limiting ourselves to one category will not allow advancement in innovations whether that be in technological advancements, exhibitions, the movie industry, etc. A perfect example of this would be a spherical droid named BB-8 (my profile pic).
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I’ll be honest when I first saw BB-8 rolling around in the Star Wars sequels, I thought he was purely CGI. It wasn’t until I watched the behind-the-scenes and saw that he was an actual physical droid. The floating head design just seemed impossible making me think that his existence would only be CGI. However, he was made possible by holonomic motion and magnetic interaction! It’s amazing to see how the engineers collaborated with concept designers to bring to life something that was once a creative idea. BB-8 is proof that collaboration between scientists and artists can make the “impossible” possible.
BB-8's Mechanism
Robinson, S. K. (2010). Changing education paradigms. Sir Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms | TED Talk. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms
Snow, C. P. (1959). The two cultures and the scientific revolution. Cambridge University Press.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. (2018, October 20). Star Wars The Force Awakens: Building BB-8 Featurette. YouTube. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgP5flzrcE4
SΓ‘nchez, C. (n.d.). How does BB-8 work? How Does BB-8 Work? Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://howbb8works.com/
Vesna, V. (2001). Toward a third culture: Being in between. Leonardo, 34(2), 121–125. https://doi.org/10.1162/002409401750184672
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Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteYour post is extremely insightful! It's disheartening to know that, from such an early age, we are pushed to decide between being a 'math' person or an 'arts' person, but rarely ever a combination of the both. Each field has its strengths, yet students are told to choose sides in a sense. For example, I'm a non-STEM major and the requirements for my major do not require me to take any type of science or math courses besides general statistics. I have had to seek out STEM-related classes outside of my major. I'm sure those who are science majors have a similar experience as well. Educational institutions really need to do better to teach kids that combining the sciences and arts is, arguably, what our futures will consist of.
It is really interesting that BB-8 was a real physical implementation; it's a really nice illustration of science, technology, and art coming together, producing something that is both sophisticated and adorable. Besides this, I also find your example of students categorizing and limiting themselves very appropriate. I have definitely heard those comments being said, and felt the same thing: "Why do we do this? Why do we only limit our skills and knowledge to one category?" To be honest, though, I can't tell to what extent we can free ourselves from blind categorizing and be truly well-rounded; perhaps with a different educational system fostering both artistic and scientific skills it is possible. Otherwise, hopefully, we can still work together across disciplinary divides at least, and produce more works like BB-8.
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