I'm a huge fan of Leonardo da Vinci because he embraced both the Sciences and Humanities, similar to many in the Renaissance era. It would be fascinating to analyze the typical "Renaissance Man" and speculate what he/she would look like in today's world. Are there any examples you can think of? Who and why?
Perhaps he would look something like Neil Haribisson who listens to colors. Harbisson talks about expanding our physical senses with advancing technology in his TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color. For example he turned himself into a sort of 'cyborg' where he can now hear color. He demonstrates a very interesting combination of art, technology, and biology.
When talking about the Synthesis between the Sciences and the Humanities it's also important to discuss the basics around STEM to STEAM. John Maeda, who championed STEM to STEAM as president of R.I.S.D. wrote about art and science synergy in the Scientific American here: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/artists-and-scientists-more-alike-than-different/# He starts his article saying "Art and science. To those who practice neither, they seem like polar opposites, one data-driven, the other driven by emotion. One dominated by technical introverts, the other by expressive eccentrics. For those of us involved in either field today (and many of us have a hand in both), we know that the similarities between how artists and scientists work far outweigh their stereotypical differences." Meanwhile opponents argue that creativity/arts should be innate in STEM or that integrating arts will dilute the STEM fields. What would you say to people who believe they should be separate?
I'm always astonished about the creativity of McBride students and I would love to see everyone's various types of art/poetry/music inspired by the combinations of the humanities and sciences. It's always great to see engineers be artistic! I some point I'll try and post some of my own art as well.
I could go on and on about various combinations of Humanities and Science, but I want to end with an Einstein quote: "After a certain level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well."
I find it so interesting that Haribisson created a device that effectively mimics the psychological condition synesthesia. Loosely defined as a "merging of senses," those with synesthesia experience many different forms of the disorder, such as color-graphic, in which numbers or letters are inherently colored. It makes me wonder if he did so consciously, as a form of bio-mimicry, or not. His ideas are powerful, and definitely display the inherent creativity that many in STEM fields have.
ReplyDeleteI agree that STEM to STEAM should be an integral part of education curriculum. To those that doubt the connection, I would point them in the direction of the thousands of people in STEM that are artists, musicians, carvers, and etc. I recently discovered Rachel Penton, a neuroscientist that also creates beautiful acrylic flow art paintings. She uses her science background in order to determine different viscosities of the paints, and uses that and other factors to determine how they will interact with one another. This results in beautifully colored abstract art pieces, and Penton ascribes some of her success in art to her success in STEM and vice versa.