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Opportunities and Obstacles Facing Scientists, Mathematicians, and Engineers Deeply Engaged in the Arts and Design
Opportunities and Obstacles Facing Scientists, Mathematicians, and Engineers Deeply Engaged in the Arts and Design
Contributed by Morgan Fritz on 25 Mar 2014
Efforts to combine distinct entities, such as knowledge disciplines and organizational structures that have grown to pervade them, suffer from a seemingly inescapable dilemma: the terms of discussion inevitably invoke the very entities and mindsets we attempt to surpass. We try to move toward a new paradigm, yet speak in terms acculturated by the current state of things. Rooted in habits of thought and action, these terms have a stubborn tendency to recur and persist. They can inhibit the desired synthesis, ironically serving instead to reinforce the customary separation. An imagined new reality is difficult to grasp. Once achieved, it would have its own terminology based on an evolved set of assumptions. How could our innovative predecessors have predicted proliferation of the "car" when all they could see was a "horseless carriage" – not even yet an "automobile"? We are limited by currently available concepts and terms. So it is with discussions of "art/sci" and our attempts to leverage, through synthesis, knowledge from realms conventionally kept apart. The stakes are high and separations run deep, constituting personal and professional identities, forging career trajectories, and shaping destinies among professional generations to come.
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