Thursday, May 18, 2006
What Drives Art and Science?
Was watching a webcast of a program about Richard Feymann. He mentions that his Father inculcated in him the practice of attempting to understand the essence of what you are studying. You can call a bird by many names in many languages his Father explained, but none of those labels are that bird. You can see his Father imparting wisdom and that is usually what is lacking in modern education - the teaching of wisdom. The best teachers impart wisdom (useful knowledge) as well as just information. One can see Feynmann's curiosity. His attempt to understand the World and explain what he is seeing. One also sees him paint a portrait. He's attempting to capture the essence of the woman he's painting. Is this drive to understand reality through query and analysis for the scientist, the same drive that an artist or architect feels? The painter trying to capture what he or she feels and sees on canvas. The architect trying to capture the look and feel of space in the design of the room or building? Underlying all this manic human effort is the desire to capture the look and feel, the essence, of the moment, through a mathematical formula, a painting, a sketch, a blueprint, a song -- just variations of a desire to describe or explain the whole fabric of reality from different perspectives.
