Sunday, June 26, 2016

Week 1: Two Cultures

As a pre-political science major at UCLA, I have classes in North campus. Besides my statistics class, I do not go to the South side of campus. There is a divide between North and South campus majors. North campus involve arts and the social sciences while South campus consist of math and sciences. There is a hostility between the two a because of the lack of respect for each other, as they define the word "success" is defined differently. The word "success" has caused the divide between art and science. Success is associated with money and careers in science often result in higher income that artist careers.


Out of curiosity, I googled the word "success" on Google Images. Today's view of success is a (business) man in a suit, hypothetically standing and scanning the world below him . 


After watching the online video called "Changing Education Paradigms", I noticed the architectural differences of the buildings of North and South campus. North campus is aesthetically-pleasing while South campus is corporate-style buildings. Pictured below is North campus's beautiful sculpture garden near Broad Art Center while South Campus's mathematical sciences building is business-like with no creative aspects.

UCLA North Campus Sculpture Garden


UCLA South Campus Mathematical Sciences Building

Art and science has divided into two cultures that impacts my life and everyone around me. CP Snow believes that the education system is at fault for this divide. I agree with him because my whole life became affected by this divide. In school all the subjects that required studying are recognized as the "important" subjects that will pave the way to success. But, classes like Art 1 and Ceramics that did not require studying are undermined by the education system.


Before this week, I would never imagine that art and science were once, a culture. I always thought that art and science were completely different. Professor Vesna proclaims that "both artist and scientist are involved in the work of intuiting change in perception and materializing it for others to experience, see and ultimately change". I can see how artists and scientists work together and the importance of finding the similarities in subjects that may seem different. Since I am a freshman, I've found that college is the best time to learn and explore new things. I've never been passionate about a subject but if I take classes of various subjects and try to find the connections, then this will help evolve me into a well-rounded person.


Sources

Gallagher, Tracy. UCLA Sculpture Gardens. Digital image. Tracy Gallagher. Contact Designer L.L.C., 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 26 June 2016.

RSA Animate. "Changing Education Paradigms". Online video clip. UCOnline. 26 June 2016. Web.

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


Terzidis, Kostas. UCLA Architecture Report P.I.: Kostas Terzidis. Digital image. Oldcda Design UCLA. UCLA, n.d. Web. 26 June 2016.   


Vesna, Victoria. "Toward A Third Culture: Being In Between". Leonardo, JSTOR. Web. 26 June 2016.



1 comment:

  1. I thought that your idea on how the gap between art and science is defined by their definitions of success was very interesting. There are people in the sciences that I know who have said that they were in it for the money. However, even though I am considered a "south campus" major, my definition of success would be anyone who has a positive impact on society. I think that this can be applied to both the arts and sciences. I am curious to know what you think the common definition of success is for artists and sciences. Furthermore, I agree with you that north campus is more "aesthetically-pleasing". Normally, I do not go to the north side too often, but when I do, I notice that the layout seems to be more beautiful. (This might be my own bias, though, since I frequently go to south campus.) UCLA also seems to promote north campus buildings such as Royce Hall much more prominently in different types of media.

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