Week 1 | Two Cultures

reference: Crazytownblog

During most of my first three years at UCLA, I often found myself walking back and forth across the bridge between the arts and the sciences. I am a biology major with huge interests in design, painting, and makeup. And for the longest time, I felt that I had to choose either one or the other. In this sense, I was dealing with the threat of having "two separate cultures," as forewarned by C.P Snow. The truth is, I desire to be a part of  both cultures. Recently, I decided that I want to design web platforms and am now preparing for a web development bootcamp. This way, I can still be an engineer/mathematician while still being able to express and create.

I believe that many other students feel they have to choose one culture or the other. At UCLA, the physical separation of science and humanities buildings into south and north campus adds to the influence of picking one culture. As mentioned in lecture, stereotypes play a huge role and I can see it happening everyday. For instance, north campus students are stereotyped to be "better dressed" and south campus majors are said to be "smarter" or "have no life."

Big Hero 6 Directed by Chris Williams

Although I mostly agree with Kevin Kelly in his essay that technology is the "third culture," I think technology helps in linking the gap between arts and sciences. New technology opens space for innovators and creativity. This idea of using science creatively can be seen in the animated science fiction film Big Hero 6.

To sum it up, I believe that one should not be restricted to just the sciences or the arts. We can look to one of my inspirations, Elon Musk. He is a visionary who designed Tesla Motors and SpaceX and a great example of how one can part take both cultures in his or her career. Many products that we have now, such as 3-D printers, could not have occurred without the blend of both.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2011-03-08-Science_Wonder_Art.jpg

References

Bohm, D. "On Creativity." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 April. 2015.

Brockman, John. The Third Culture. N.p.: n.p., 1995. Print.

Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture" Science 13 February 1998: Vol. 279 no. 5353 pp. 992-993. Web.

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

Vesna, Victoria. TwoCultures part 3. Lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FOEuxrwxd0