Art and Science: A Recap

This blog has been a really interesting part of an online writing class I’ve been taking. As an engineering and theatre major, I have found the overlaps of art and science to be something really interesting to write about. I have spent days with scientifically minded individuals, and days with artistically-minded individuals, and I have seen first hand their differences. Their personalities for one are generally different, although that does not always seem to be the case. But, most of all, they both seem to be limited by the idea of what they can accomplish–the idea of “who” they are. I have heard countless engineers tell me how they don’t get art, aren’t artistic, and can’t draw. I’m asked all the time by people in the theatre department why I am an engineering major when I seem to be so creative. But, the fact of the matter is that their is no scientific evidence that we can only be one or the other. Especially in today’s web-connected world, I really do believe that anyone can learn anything.

Artists are creative, enjoy viewing others art, and like to make things–but so do engineers, scientists, bakers, dancers, doctors, businessmen, and machinists. Their are creative elements to almost every career. Even though, society may not consider a well performed surgery or a perfectly machined mechanical part to be artwork, their are people out there who look at these things with the same admiration and wonder as a painter views an artistic masterpiece. Art is often viewed as deep, meaningful, and sophisticated, but it doesn’t have to be. The only difference between something being “artistic” and not is somebody saying it’s that way. In that sense, almost anything can be seen as art, and you really can’t be wrong about art.

Scientists and engineers are curious, resourceful, and smart. They have questions about the universe, and are constantly looking for answers. They apply what they learn to projects and improvements on the world we live in. However, these things extend far beyond these fields. Artists often describe elements of their work as “happy accidents,” in other words they experiment and learn what works and what doesn’t. In fact, everybody has done some science in their lives. It’s been shown that babies learn through experimentation, suggesting that curiosity and science are pretty core human values.

This blog has really just scratched the surface of the overlaps of art and science. Both of these things are all around us, and the marriage of the two is almost magical. Keep your eyes open, be curious, and be open to everyone’s viewpoints and it won’t take long before these overlaps make themselves evident.

Signing off,

Alex Zenk

The Maker Movement in Summary

For a recent project for my writing class, I wrote about the maker movement. The maker movement is just starting to catch steam, but it is in my opinion what may be a shift towards a more creative culture. Whereas in the past, it used to take huge teams of highly specialized individuals to take a product to market (or even just to a prototype), digital fabrication and specialized tools, are making it easier than ever to build working prototypes. In this post I want to highlight some key aspects of the maker movement–as I believe it is a fantastic collaboration of both artistic and scientific creatives.

The Overlaps: Leonardo Da Vinci

This is a topic that pretty much everyone saw coming–Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci is one of the most famous artists to ever live, and in addition to this, he accomplished a huge amount in the fields of science and engineering. His massive portfolio makes writing a short blog post on him pretty difficult. I’ll give it my best shot.

The Art and Science of 3D Printing

3D printing is not a new technology, what is new however is the fact that almost everybody has access to a 3d printer if they are interested. While personal 3D printers are certainly not the norm, several websites like Shapeways allow anybody to have their parts 3D printed.

The Overlaps: Theme Parks

If there is one topic that I find particularly fascinating it is theme parks. Theme parks, like most areas of entertainment, are particularly good at combining technology and art to create unique experiences.

The Artistic Technology Behind Video Games

I would by no means call myself a heavy gamer, however I do find myself hooked every now and then. I am a huge fan of a company named Naughty Dog. For those of you familiar with the company, you know that unlike a lot of developers, their games are very story driven–they play out almost like a movie. Perhaps it is that they haven’t released a game in a while, or maybe that they are currently working on one that looks absolutely incredible (Uncharted 4), but I found myself watching a few documentaries showcasing how the company works. Unsurprisingly, it is through a perfect marriage of the artistic and the technical.

Art and Science: The Overlaps (Adam Savage)

One of my main goals on this blog is to prove that art and science really aren’t as different as most people seem to believe they are. Art and Science: The Overlaps, is a series of posts which highlight overlaps between the two fields.

The Truth About Right Brained/Left Brained

One of the most common notions about being talented in the arts or gifted at the sciences is that you are either right or left brained. It is often taught that there is a dominant side to our brains with the right being more creative, and the left more analytic. This is simply not true. Although research supports that certain functions originate from certain sides of the brain, almost every task we do requires neurons firing on both sides.

The Story of Communication

While doing some research the other day I stumbled onto an interview with Adam Savage (the guy from Mythbusters). I’ve always been a big fan of the show, and find Adam Savage to be a very interesting guy who seems to share a lot of the same interests I do. The interview was fascinating, but, one question in the interview was especially interesting to me. Adam was asked if he felt that trying to tell a story on Mythbusters ever got in the way of the science of the show. He replied that he felt storytelling and the scientific method meshed together extremely well. This was honestly something I had never really thought about, but the two are structured almost identically.

What is Science?

Science and Art are both things that we as humans know well—or do we? You’ve probably used these words throughout your lives and never really stopped to ask yourself what the two are. When it really comes down to it, Science and Art really aren’t simple things at all, they are broad, vague descriptions of a wide variety of very loosely related things. That is why in this post I will be focusing entirely on what science is at a root level, followed next week by the much broader topic of what art is. Then it should be easier to go in depth as to how the two are related.