Artists and Scientists: More Alike Than Different

By John Maeda | July 11, 2013

Art and science. To those who practice neither, they seem like polar
opposites, one data-driven, the other driven by emotion. One dominated by
technical introverts, the other by expressive eccentrics. For those of us
involved in either field today (and many of us have a hand in both), we know
that the similarities between how artists and scientists work far outweigh
their stereotypical differences. Both are dedicated to asking the big questions
placed before us: What is true? Why does it matter? How can we move
society forward? Both search deeply, and often wanderingly, for these
answers. We know that the scientists laboratory and the artists studio are
two of the last places reserved for open-ended inquiry, for failure to be a
welcome part of the process, for learning to occur by a continuous feedback
loop between thinking and doing.

I have always bridged art and design, science and technology, navigating
both poles and the space that lies between them, with degrees in EECS from
MIT and a PhD in classical design from Tsukuba University in Japan. In
elementary school, my parents were told at a parent-teacher conference that
I was good at math and art (but went on to tell their friends I was good at
math). My work combining computer codes and traditional artistic technique
was one attempt to carve out a space in the middle, and I find Im always
trying to find others in my tribe, hybrids who seek to marry disparate fields as
a way of life.

In DaVincis time when expertise in art and science had not yet matured to
the polarized state in which they exist today, they coexisted naturally. Of
course, sciences level of sophistication back then was quite different. But
from where I sit as the president of the Rhode Island School of Design, it is
clear to me that even current practices in scientific research have much to
gain by involving artists in the process early and often. Artists serve as great
partners in the communication of scientific research; moreover, they can
serve as great partners in the navigation of the scientific unknown.

That is why at RISD we have been leading a movement to integrate Art and
Design into the recent focus on STEM and turn it into STEAM. Our
investigation began with an NSF-funded workshop hosted at RISD in January
2011. Bridging STEM to STEAM: Developing New Frameworks for ArtScience-Design Pedagogy brought together thinkers from the fields of Art +
Design, Science, Creative IT, Engineering, and Mathematics to examine the
ways educators and policy makers can bridge the gap between art and
science.

STEAM and arts integration are crucial in K-12 education, engaging students
in the STEM subjects and ensuring that creativity doesnt fall by the wayside
as we chase innovation (how could it?). But its also an important idea for
research. Artists and designers reformulate the questions that can guide a
project, rethinking or redesigning systems at their base. In this vein, RISD is
collaborating with the University of Rhode Island and Brown University on
new ways to visualize oceanic data to see the impact of climate change on
marine life. The work began with a joint course entitled The Hypothesis
Studio, focusing on the very questions at hand.

Historically, many researchers and organizations have approached our school

expecting students and faculty to design the poster for their initiatives. Its
true, an artists or designers expert hand can often make the story of

scientific discovery more compelling, results more broadly understandable,

and complex choices actionable. DaVinci himself said, Art is the queen of all
sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world. At
RISD, we just collaborated with Brown University on a studio course dedicated
to the concept of Communicating Medical Risk, so that patients could make
truly informed decisions.

Artists and scientists tend to approach problems with a similar openmindedness and inquisitiveness they both do not fear the unknown,
preferring leaps to incremental steps. They make natural partners. With such
complementary thinking, there is great potential when they collaborate from
the offset, resulting in unexpected outcomes that can be exponentially more
valuable than when they work apart. You can see the power of collaboration
between artists and scientists in the decades of advancement in computer
graphics at SIGGRAPH; in the latest exhibitions at the Science Gallery in
Dublin, or in the midst of groundbreaking scientific results with the Large
Hadron Collider and more.

With all that we have to address in the world warming continents,

fluctuating economies, monstrous cities pursuing scientific questions in
tandem with artists and designers may not seem like conventional wisdom.
But given the unconventional nature and scale of the problems we face
today, there is real value to be gained from collaborations that bridge the
best talents we have in both the quantitative and qualitative domains. Artists
and designers are the ones who help bring humanity front and center, make
us care, and create answers that resonate with our values.