Thursday, May 14, 2009

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] One Two Three More Cultures

Frieder and Roger:
Scientists ask questions and seek answers in a measurable way. Standards are
established and results analyzed, repeated, and reviewed. The word rigor is
often used to describe the process. The truly great scientists are like the
artist, who becomes enveloped in an idea and transcend the scientific
process and vocabulary to create something new.
The artist is often focused on the idea, on beauty, on transformation,
although in collaboration, the artist and scientist create a fusion that
opens the discussion to a broader audience. The artist becomes the
translator of the science; giving new meaning and color to the idea.
Recent examples of this successful melding of ideas include:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103713700&ft=1&f=10003
On May 3, the American Museum of Natural History in New York hosted an
unusual premiere, combining music, neuroscience and giant images of the
brain. Self Comes To Mind is a collaboration between composer Bruce Adolphe
and neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, known for his research and writing on
the evolution of human consciousness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/arts/music/05ma.html
More fantastic works that allude to science in a metaphoric way include:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/05/08/arts/200900510-momix-audioss/i
ndex.html
Botanica

Joseph Ingoldsby of Landscape Mosaics current exhibition is Vanishing
Landscapes and Endangered Species at the UW-Madison Arboretum, 5-6, 2009.
A retrospective exhibition of environmental advocacy works, which use art
and science to communicate concern for the vanishing landscapes and
endangered species of the Midwest and New England. Works include panels from
Silent Shadows, Crane Effigy Mounds, Spirits of Whooping Cranes, Shrouds for
an Endangered Species, Landscape Mosaics, Leaves in Grass, Requiem for a
Drowning Landscape and Anadromous Awakening.
http://josephemmanuelingoldsby.com/vanishing_landscapes2.html


On 5/12/09 8:02 AM, "roger malina" <rmalina@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> Frieder
>
> I enjoyed your story about random generators on computers
> that in fact are pseudo random generators
>
> the conclusion of your story was
>
> ¨""That's the story. Its point is that students usually have no way to
> understand, let alone develop for themselves those transformations.
> But they do need them now. C.P. Snow would treat this more or less as
> a language problem. The two cultures cannot talk to each other. But I
> have come to believe, it is a matter of attitude. What do you expect
> and request from yourself!""
>
> Frieder Nake
>
> I think I agreee with your point= its what I call the burning issue problem.
> When you really need to do something you dont ask the question what
> university department teaches it, or which funding agency paid for it,
> you work with the people who have the expertise you need whether they
> have a phd or not or what profession they call themselves.
>
> But the problem is quite deep, because depending on the way you
> grow up, some things are natural and some things are really difficult;
> I was just reading Alan Lightman's book of essays " a sense of the
> mysterious" which is a great book on the two cultures debate
>
> ( there is an interesting interview of him on line
> http://www.prx.org/pieces/10917)
>
> Lightman re iterates a " wisdom" that i remember my father telling me
> as a kid= Alan Lightman makes the generalisation that there are
> a number of good examples of first rate scientists who went on to
> do good work in the arts and humanities, but there are almost
> no examples of people who started their careers as artists and then
> went on to make important discoveries in the sciences or engineering
> or mathematics
>
> If he is right= there is not only a matter of the attitude as you argue,
> or of language problems as you quote Snow, but that in fact the way
> we are trained as kids and young people actually changes your brain
> and the way that you perceive the world; Someone with a strong
> mathematical training as a young person, actually sees the world differently
> and
> thinks differently than a person trained and who worked as a poet or painter
> in their youth.
>
> Is this true ? is this "asymmetry" true between how the arts and the sciences
> as training affect a brain structure/cognition/perception differerence ?
>
> Roger
>
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