Week1- Two Cultures and Inbetween 04/04/2019

     

                               Two Cultures and the Gap Erasing

       The distinction between arts major and STEM majors appears on my first day here, which directly reflects in building structures on campus. Although public discourse and educational structure has created the notion that the subjects are completely disparate (Green), locations of buildings at UCLA further physically separate "North-campus" majors, arts majors, from "South-campus", stem majors. Moreover, even the building structure itself constrains students from accessing the different fields. On the picture below, Mathematical Sciences building is connected to the Boelter Hall. As a math major, it is not rare for me to stay in the same building to finish my classes for one day. Even if I can take a walk inside the building, the pictures hanging on the wall are famous mathematical publications. This, in turn, further divides the gap between the two cultures as they become more isolated from each other, and when cultures are isolated from each other, there is more room for misunderstanding (Vesna). At that moment, I has a feeling that all bridges to the other fields are broken in this "isolated" building.   

Resources -Google Map 

      However, the interplay of arts, science, and technology is the common circumstances. These ideas affect us as a society, just as the ideas of science affect us as a species; as science defines the world, our art defines us (Casper). Phones need to have advanced functions with elegant outlooks. Novels should have fascinating styles with logic structures. Even in academia, the cooperation between arts and science is the main parts of rating. For example, when I worked on my website for one CS class, the professor asked the designed website should be concise, beautiful, and efficient. We can notice that the blending of art and technology produces ever more startling results, it seems, with every passing day(Mcnamee).     

                                     How to view website HTML/CSS source code on Android by Patrick Coombe

        In our changeable society, college students should be stand out of their comfort zones in academic fields and social circles. In the academia, inspiration of one unrelated field might result in a positive change in your own one. However,  the separation between the scientists and non-scientists is much less bridgeable among the young (Snow).  For the social relationship, people should put more efforts on reaching out to different people within different fields to expand their horizons. 

The intersection of science and art

Casper, Vinu. “The Divide between Art and Science.” Vanguard, 16 June 2018, psuvanguard.com/the-divide-between-art-and-science/.

Green, Hannah, "Art and Science: Seen as Dichotomous Practiced as Dependent" (2014). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 107

McNameeMay, Gregory, et al. “Erasing the Gap Between Art and Science.” Science, 11 Dec. 2017, www.sciencemag.org/careers/2001/05/erasing-gap-between-art-and-science.

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.