Unconventional Wisdom

In Artists and Scientists: More Alike Than Different, a piece published today on the Scientific American blog, President John Maeda continues to make a case for turning STEM to STEAM by reconnecting the arts and sciences.

Maeda reminds us that in daVinci’s day, art and science were natural allies – or rather, two connected branches of natural inquiry. And he notes that today:

We know that the scientist’s laboratory and the artist’s studio are two of the last places reserved for open-ended inquiry, for failure to be a welcome part of the process, for learning to occur by a continuous feedback loop between thinking and doing.

Maeda wraps up with an argument that’s tough to refute:

With all that we have to address in the world – warming continents, fluctuating economies, monstrous cities – [bringing art and science closer together] may not seem like conventional wisdom. But given the unconventional nature and scale of the problems we face today, there is real value to be gained from collaborations that bridge the best talents we have in both the quantitative and qualitative domains. Artists and designers are the ones who help bring humanity front and center, make us care and create answers that resonate with our values.