Artistic Scientists & Scientific Artists — We Need Both Explanation and Expression.

Art.

It’s near impossible to define. It’s the unique expression of an individual’s perspective on the world. It’s not right or wrong, liberal or conservative, left or right, up or down, front or back, white or black. Art is simply expression.

And yet today we often place art in a false dichotomy with science. Science is testing. Measuring. Gathering data. Hypothesizing. Theorizing. It’s respected because it’s considered legit. It’s art’s older, wiser brother with gray hair, a white lab-coat, a clipboard and a Harvard degree. Art is the younger, Millennial, skateboarding, spikey-haired freak who dropped out of school to scribble crap on post-it-notes. This is often how we treat the two isn’t it?

When did we get the authority to self-proclaim art as the immature version of science. I get it. Science is important. Of course. Only an uninformed and disingenuous person would say science is useless. But art is not the antithesis of science. And science is not above having holes poked in it. And you know what?

Neither is art. I’ve read both artists and scientists that carry such airs about them that none can question their work. Really? When did our work get so divine that it became untouchable, unquestionable, unreachable and outside of any critique? Science can be wrong. Art can be tricky. But both are not so worthy that they are beyond the scope of the critique or questioning of our human community.

People who say art is qualitative and science is quantitative misunderstand the purpose and use of both. Sure each lean more towards a side of the spectrum than the other. But they cannot be bound by one end of the spectrum. They cannot be locked in chains.

Art and science alike must be controlled, managed, innovated and adapted according to one standard: the people they seek to serve.

Science is nothing without readers to understand and apply the data. Science helps explain.

Art is nothing without an audience to enjoy the expression. Art helps express.

Science and art desperately need each other. Let’s stop comparing the two and start marrying them. They go together. We need more artistic scientists and more scientific artists.

Let the tension suspend for a while. Let the conflict fester. It’s good for growth and learning. One is not better than the other.

Go create AND go measure and test. Both are good. Both are necessary. Both are equally beautiful. We need both explanation and expression.