Response to Dr. Taylor’s Presentation at CAMCOR
Image from eecs.oregonstate.edu
A) Even though I had read the assigned article on the work of Dr. Taylor, there were a plethora of ideas I learned through this morning’s presentation. In a general sense, Dr. Taylor’s whole life paints a very inspiring picture, that of a real, living artist-scientist. What was most striking to me, and seems to be a trend in the lives of many historic thinkers, and prolific scholars, is how young he was when he first started on the journey that he daily embarks on now. I believe that sort of focus and extended questioning on a single subject, or narrow group of subjects, is an interesting phenomena in its own right.
Today, I learned where the divide between art and science developed, form the book The Two Cultures, by C.P. Snow. Of course, I am now very interested in reading this book, as my interest in the intersections, and possibility for collaboration has peaked over the past few weeks. Another part of today that will stick with me was the theory that our eyes are fractal detectors. In my own musings and experience with art, I wondered if it would be possible to quantify the amount of relaxation that a strong composition can impart in the viewer. Taylor’s findings that fractals in a certain D-value have the ability to induce a sense of calm seems to be the beginning of answer to this perennial question. I know have many more questions on the subject:
Is it only these fractal patterns that can induce this decrease in anxiety in a viewer? What about fractal movements in dance? Do these produce the same decrease in anxiety? Can our eyes even detect fractal pattern in motion? Or only on static surfaces?
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960077906007399
This publication may answer some of these questions.
What sort of movement would it take in our popular and academic culture to merge the arts and sciences? Is this a movement that would have to be motivated by students? professors? curriculum writers? Would these collaborations speed innovation? Can we even conceive of a world where our architects are our chemists, where our geologists are our printmakers anymore? I suspect in this case, the integrative teaching of art and science in the elementary years would be the most beneficial. On the college level, I believe the primary difficulty would be with training a person in the technical skills required for both disciplines simultaneously. It would also radically challenge the notion of college being the factory where employees are produced.
B) The largest contribution this presentation had on my project was a rekindling of the desire to look for the confluence of art and science. It allowed me to see my project in a new light, and brought with it ideas on how to organize my creative response.
C) In terms of what to apply to my life, the sheer thought that my own life could be half as interesting as Dr. Taylor’s is a takeaway. It was inspiring to see how far one can go when one has goals, deep questions, and undertake a scholarly pursuit of knowledge wholeheartedly. The talk started my own thought process on what subjects I would want to study for decades if given the opportunity. In a world that is so interconnected, it is easy to assume everything has already been done and discovered, because there is so much scattered about. This talk has given me new perspective on the unexplored frontiers of human knowledge, and the belief that some of those frontiers will be explored during my lifetime.