Two Cultures
After reading these articles, I realized my brother is a perfect example of the two cultures of sciences and the humanities. I have been able to witness the way the two cultures have played a friendly game of tug-of-war with him over the years. As STEM majors in college and current doctors, my parents' influence of science and technology is evident. My brother is about to graduate college with a computer science degree. This gave him the opportunity to do an internship over the summer with Amazon. Yet my brother is an artistic and creative person at heart. He used to draw as a child and has always loved music. His love for music grew as he got older and led him to play multiple instruments.
Stereotypical Differences Between Science and Art
Despite the contrast of these two cultures, my brother has found his own third culture. As Victoria Vesna explains in "Toward A Third Culture: Being In Between," a third culture can create an inclusive approach to problem solving. She states, "Bridging and synthesizing many worlds while composing 'something else' becomes the art" (Vesna 124). This is exactly how my brother bridged his own gap between computer science and music. My brother discovered digital music production.
Combining Traditional Music with Technology
C.P. Snow explains in "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution" that the scientific revolution brought about significant changes in science and technology. This statement can be compared with the findings of Harry B. Lincoln in the journal article "Uses of the Computer in Music Composition and Research". Lincoln analyzes the many ways in which computers have revolutionized the field of music. Stephen Wilson says in his essay "Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology", "Artists have been eager to adopt the fruits of technological research and others have been much influenced by the concepts and contexts of science" (Wilson 4). Computers have made it possible for composers to create complex compositions with less effort than was previously possible. My brother has utilized this, using electronic compositions to create polyrhythms and beats. He has found ways to create music that would be otherwise impossible without a computer. He fell in love with it, and being able to create music digitally has inspired another career path: to become a music producer.
Digital Music Producer
Works Cited
Whoah, I feel the same regarding the "tug-of-war" -- I literally also phrased it that way haha. I think it just goes to show how the force of the notion of two cultures is so deeply embedded within our own conceptions of learning and knowledge systems. it's really cool to learn about how your brother bridged the gap with music. Please share some of his work if that's cool with him !! i feel like music is such a driving entity in this conversation too since it literally is the product of science and arts.
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