aba1 said:
I think a good deal of people are forgetting there is more to being a artist than painting...
ALL inventions involve creative thinking. Artistic fields teach you to solve problem and to think outside the box. In order to further society that is exactly what is required. Inventing and art go hand in hand. You get creative come up with good ideas then start to draw up drafts begin creating models. Inventing is a form of art in its bare essentials.
You guys act like art has no science or math to it. I can tell you with my training in art I have studied A LOT of scientific principles.
Thank goodness for people like you with a bit of scope to their thoughts.
What is people's flag-waving obsession with the need to cry out 'art/science trumps all!!!' when this fanatical crusade for superiority of one field over the other doesn't take place in responsible academia. While the Escapists who've contributed so far been mature and sincere in their comments (which I respect) and direction of argument I feel this reliance on examples of 'products' of art/science reflect a wider endemic attempt to commit the cardinal sin of both fields - you're confusing cause and effect.
Poems, vaccines, novels, great feats of engineering, etc. are only the end result of great inventors, artists, discoverers and creators. Anyone who does their homework into the lives of Blaise Pascal, George Mendel, Francis Bacon, Georges Seurat, Jules Verne, Ray Brabury etc.- great men (and women) throughout Art and Science history, will see that they recognised and embodied the inherrent qualities of both fields and saw no need to trumpet one field over the other. Why? Because they recognised that both fields hold equal right to being manifest expressions of Man's imagination. Does the author who predicts the use of fibre optic cameras assault the drive and motivation of the naturalist who's bird drawings line the walls of the Natural History Museum? The wider academic community acknowledges and reflects this belief in a shared root and quality of purpose - a fact reflected in the name of one of the highest academic qualifications (shared across both fields), the PhD ('Doctor of Philosophy'). So can we stop with this inane 'our side did this, this and this and implies us better than you' that does not occur in responsible academia, get off our high horses and go and learn something new, challenging and, God forbid, alternative about a field you've been bashing away at out of ignorance for that subject's impact on the key figures within your own 'beloved' field.
*sigh*
OT: Arts/Culture policy always get bashed during a recession (as an unnecessary frivolity) and then revitalised during the economic sunny days (as a demonstration of a civilised and affluent society) - check out the fortunes of the British Arts Council and local libraries over the past decade as an example.