It was great to see the extent of the connections between arts and science described in Peter Aspden’s piece “The Two Cultures illuminated” (Visual Arts, Life & Arts, September 28).
The piece rightly starts with CP Snow’s famous 1959 Rede Lecture at Cambridge, “The Two Cultures”. This posited a split between the worlds of science and the humanities in the British educational system, which, in Snow’s view, had overemphasised the humanities (especially Latin and Greek) at the expense of scientific and engineering education.
It is important to note, as Aspden correctly points out, that “the humanities” in Snow’s piece refers to writing and makes no reference to other forms of art. Also important to note is that the two-cultures battle — advocating unity or split — has a long history. Snow was a latecomer to the discussion. In fact, this split was at the very core of the founding of several universities.
There is another framing, a more positive one. This was the hugely successful collaboration between art and science, which took place in October 1966, in the enormous space of the 69th Regiment Armory building in New York.
The 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering performance brought together 10 artists (led by Robert Rauschenberg) and 30 engineers (led by Billy Klüver from Bell Labs) to create avant-garde theatre and dance.
The two teams worked for 10 months to develop technical equipment and systems that were used as an integral part of the artists’ performances. Their collaboration produced many firsts. These included the use of closed-circuit television and television projection on stage; a fibre-optics camera that showed the audience objects in a performer’s pocket; an infrared television camera that was able to record action in total darkness; a Doppler sonar device that translated movements into sound while wireless FM transmitters and amplifiers allowed speech; and a system where body sounds could be broadcast through loudspeakers.
This was a meeting of minds that went to the root of what makes for a meaningful art-science connection — first understand how the other side thinks. Process is more important than outcome. In art-science discussions we tend to focus on outcomes; finished pieces of art and what can be placed in an exhibit, rather than the thinking that went into them.
Where are today’s Bell Labs? One must wonder what other company would give 30 engineers leave of absence for a year to purse this kind
of activity.
Professor Julio M Ottino
McCormick School of Engineering, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, US
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