The Art in Science
Art is the most influential expression of humans. We are able to produce it as sound, text, and physical displays that all harbor extensive meaning. These expressions are not only literal artwork, but can be used as a tool for learning and used in an actual job that one may acquire. The sciences are a very broad subject field where art would have a chance to flourish. Yo-Yo Ma, globally known cellist and a large advocate for STEAM, tells of ways in which he believes art and science can meet and, ultimately, aid the human population if worked into our school systems. Contrasting Ma, Mark Boslough, an Albuquerque scientist who specializes in impact physics, believes that there should be a definite line between what can be proven with facts and what cannot be proven. A third essay by Jonah Lehrer, a neuroscience graduate from Columbia University, examines how art closely aligns with science by delving into different ways that art may expand the knowledge we have of science. It seems like a crazy idea to be disputing whether or not art should be paired into science when practically everything we do in our daily lives holds some alignment with art. Ideally, art and science should be taught as things that may go hand-in-hand. I believe that my career path has lead me to be more open-minded about how I perceive the world due to the fact that it has an element of art in it.
My area of study is Aquaculture and Aquarium Science; AQS for short. AQS explores aquatic agriculture and ways in which we are able to keep these freshwater or marine animals lives happy and healthy in a tank wherever one is wanted. In addition, we learn how to properly develop knowledge of tools we can use to set up a tank, water chemistry, and an ideal diet for our fish. Within all of our learning is ingrained artistic ability. We must learn how to choreograph a functioning tank setup that allows for life to flourish. The tools necessary are used to put pieces together for a tank or a tank stand. After the hard equipment is complete, we must then aquascape, which means to design the inside of the aquarium, turning it into a beautiful landscape. There is even art in the food we feed. Besides all of the nutrients and health benefits, the food that you feed your fish can determine the color that they may be.
These are only a few ways in which art is an aspect in my study. I truly believe that art is naturally ingrained in what people do on a daily basis. The issue with this is many people have qualms with acknowledging this aspect. Early education systems rarely recognize art and general science as elements that go hand-in-hand. When in grade school, the classes that were taken for science and for art were always separated, which I believe built a stiff wall up in many children’s minds. Yo-Yo Ma speaks in his essay of further incorporating the arts in science, which I think may be unnecessary due to the fact that if we simply treat art as an ingrained part of our sciences, we won’t need to introduce STEAM, which is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Ma states, “The values behind arts integration – collaboration, flexible thinking, and disciplined imagination – lead to the capacity to innovate,” which draws further on the point that art being naturally ingrained in science is a benefit and also how the separate inclusion is unnecessary (258). Adding in extra artistic classes would never deter a scientific mindset, yet why not teach them alongside one another? Even Lehrer, who is addressing a topic as heavy as neuroscience. He finds that whatever humans experience in our brains “is the world of the arts” (Lehrer).
By addressing our method of thinking as artistic, we are able to further ingrain art into science naturally. The more natural of a transition into adding art to science, I believe the better. Today, many people seem challenged by the idea of anything that may be “fake news” (Donald Trump everyday). While these fake news opinions may be an over analyzation of what one truly means, there is reason behind these claims. Many people, such as Boslough, find the addition of art to be troubling, “[The left] now has an active campaign to remove scientifically validated subjects _ such as evolution _ from the classroom and have them replaced by their own unscientific opinions, such as creationism” (Boslough). Although not having evidence for this claim, this could be a similar view of others that also have troubles with STEAM. Incorporating art with science can be daunting because if that is allowed, then it may be able to blur where facts begin and hypotheses start. Many scientific facts could possibly be revised and not actually looked at from a thorough enough context.
While some believe the thoroughness of science based facts could be at question with STEAM, that really doesn’t seem to be what STEAM actually is trying to do. By including art in our scientific curriculum, it simply could allow for a “higher level of cognitive thinking” (Ma 258). Art is proven to broaden the mind by allowing us to express various different abilities we may not know that we have. By expressing these abilities, we create an atmosphere that is willing to allow us to try, and try again. When going through the motions of a scientific method, one must first ask a question, then research, followed by creating a hypothesis. Questions are mainly asked when there is a curiosity of something. There was a precursor element that lead to this question taking place. The hypothesis is an artistic way of finding out a hard fact. Emphasizing the art in science doesn’t take away from the science, but it leads us to it. We must be able to explore our options as best we can, even if it means touching our innate mental artistic ability. We must imagine and recreate projects or problems in order to produce a result that we are searching for.
Emphasizing aspects of how we come to scientific conclusions is a greatly beneficial method to reaching scientific conclusions. An action that could be taken to implement this idea in schools could be during a science lecture, kids could learn that it is okay to search outside of the box to reach a concrete conclusion. This could be a shorter stretch to acquiring acceptance of the art addition. Art classes could also include scientific structures. Most schooling systems separate the two, not requiring an art. Additionally, when the typical public school cuts funding, the first programs to be drawn from are the arts programs. How are new generations expected to grow up with a broadened mindset if they only take fact based classes? Schools must draw from all subject fields and find a way to intermingle them.
If there is a continuation with keeping subject fields separate, that only further perpetuates the closed mindset. Having a closed mindset doesn’t just eliminate conclusions in science, but it eliminates social opportunities as well. Many people with closed mindsets are unable to intermingle with people of different backgrounds. This limits possible career opportunities, relationships, and secondary educational opportunities. By not allowing room for art in a school’s curriculum, the generations of the future will be inefficient people.
When I think of my career path, I am positive that I am going in the direction that I was meant to in life. My study allows for an plethora of opportunities in my lifetime. I essentially will be able to shape any career of interest into my own. I am given artistic ability in physical design and of mental design. AQS includes extensive problem solving, spanning the areas of which fish are able to coexist with one another to questions of how our large population of humans in the U.S. can sustainably rely on eating fish as food. These questions can even produce questions for the bigger picture, when applied to an open mind, such as, do we really need to eat fish? Why can’t we explore kelp or seaweed as an option? An answer to the seaweed problem is that we are not open minded enough. Most Asian countries, such as Japan, consider seaweed a “normal” food, but because of our Western cultural differences and general unwillingness to try new things, we consider it taboo. In fact, kelp and seaweed offer many beneficial nutrients and can be used as a sustainable fuel! Who knew!
As time goes on, society needs to harness the power of learning and adapting to each coming scientific discovery. Whether it may be climate change, the inevitable demise of the human race, or anything in between, we have a need to survive and adjust. Unfortunately, we may face times where we have no other option but to develop new answers to incoming issues, as we have exhausted others. As a society, humans should join in harmony and unite our minds in ways that we haven’t before. Our options include uniting science and the innate artistic nature of our minds. There must be a learned emphasis on how art is able to aid our pathway into science in order to establish future careers and a fulfilled life ahead.
