Blog

A Mutual Relationship

June 21, 2011 - 10:22am

"Hi there! I'm (so and so). What’s your name?”

“Hey! Nice to meet you! I’m Michael.”

“So you’re an actor, right? What classes are
you taking this quarter?”

“Some theatre courses, macroeconomics, and
multi-variable calculus. What are you taking?”

As the above snippet of conversation replayed itself many times over the course of the first few introductory weeks of college, I was consistently met with the same half-smile, half-confused expression from other students at the university. While the situation is admittedly humorous to recount, I do believe that these initial responses are indicative of the exaggerated categorical separation between the arts and sciences that presently exists.

The artist and the scientist are both explorers. Central to an artistic process and to the scientific method is an exploration of the limits of human knowledge, capacity, and expression in hopes of expanding or pushing those limits. It is no coincidence that the Greek word for art is techne, the root word of “technology” seeing as how art and technology are so closely linked. As scientific discoveries are made and technology advances, art expands and adapts in kind: discoveries in chemistry led to new pigments or colors available to early painters, breakthroughs in the studies of optics and photography eventually led to the creation of motion pictures and cinematic arts, and advanced computer programming has made possible the production of beautiful, three-dimensional, immersive video games. Likewise, as artists make use of their visual tools such as models, animation, and other graphic designs to communicate various scientific discoveries such as the functions of microscopic entities like stem cells, bacteria, or deadly viruses, we begin to understand the expansive potential derived from a mutualistic relationship between the arts and sciences.

As I arrange creative business models graphing the relationships between cost curves and benefit curves in my economics courses to assess how a firm should price its goods or services to theoretically maximize profit and efficiency, I am reminded of the power art has on science. As I build the set of an upcoming main stage musical with careful measurements, precise angles, weight shifts, and the installation of light and sound equipment, I am reminded of the power science has on art. But most importantly, as I continue my variety of academic studies through college, I am reminded of the power and value of exploring the far reaches of my understanding of the world – both in the lab and on the stage.