Week 1 - Two Cultures

From a very young age, I began to see the chasm between the “scientific world” and the “artistic world”. I grew up drawing mazes, and scenes of creatures that I invented. My favorite subject in middle school was biology. I dreamed of creating science experiments equally as complex as the mazes I drew, but as I transitioned into high school, my dream of pursuing art and science appeared to become art OR science. I sensed a divide. I felt as if I was straddling a canyon that got wider the further I walked. When I told people that I was torn between art and science during college application season, I often provoked a comment about how my interests were on opposite sides of the spectrum.

Upon arriving at UCLA, the chasm between art and science only grew wider. Taking math and computer science courses, I was physically separated from the Northern, predominantly artistic and literary side of campus. For me, this was a paradigm shift in itself, a world in which the humanities and sciences were completely opposite. I felt the “Left Brain, Right Brain” stereotype coming to life as I was lumped in with the linear, methodical, list-makers of South Campus.

Today, I do not feel like a perfect match for the South campus community. The longer I spend in the College of Letters and Science, the more I feel as if I am being poured into a mold even though I am partially dried. My fear is that, once I dry, it will be too late to choose a different mold altogether, and that I may be completely drained of my “creative juices”. No sense of divergent thinking will remain. I’ll just be another robot on Robinson’s conveyor belt of conformity, a robot with one option: continue further down the belt until I am fully assembled.

However, despite these fears, I also have hope. C. P. Snow’s prediction that a new, third culture will emerge is particularly inspiring, but, I believe that it is already here. A light show at a music festival, a beautifully designed video game, a 3D-printed sculpture: these are all examples of bridging the gap between science and art. Although our current school system does not necessarily facilitate such conversation between practices, our creative intuition endures, and we continue to contribute to a third and vibrant culture that has existed all along.

Works Cited

Fitting the Mold. Digital image. Jazz Advice. 18 May 2011. Web.

View into Huntsman Leap. Digital image. Geograph Photographs. 1 Jan. 2010. Web.

Henry Sergen's Mathematical Sculptures. Digital image. Smithsonian.com. 15 Mar. 2013. Web.

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. Animation by Cognitive Media, 2010. Film.

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

Two Cultures. Perf. Victoria Vesna. UC Online Program, 2012. Film.