This week we discussed the inter-relationship between Space and Art. While many interesting things were discussed this week, the most interesting idea that came to my mind was that this week is different in my eyes. In all the previous weeks, from my memory, we discussed how science has influenced art. Innovation in each field of science has influenced the techniques artists use, the way things are perceived, and the increased potential artists have. This is the only week where we see art influencing and changing the paradigms of science.
Artists' imaginations predict where science will take us. Take a look at the picture above. Those are scenes from Star Trek Enterprise TV show from the 1980s. This was an early depiction of the concept of "touch screens". A couple of decades later, touch screens are ubiquitous in modern society (Plafke). Art like Star Trek are one of the many examples in which artists and their imaginations were able to predict what science technology will come about (Adam). Science fiction writers take a look at what science is readily available and let their imagination transform this into new ideas (Sterling).
In fact, scientists actively know this and look to art for inspiration to see what they can do. Scientists Gresh and Weinberg actually scoured through different anime series to see what concepts might actually be viable in the real world (Gresh & Weinberg, 2005). They discuss what innovations may be necessary to bring imagination into reality.
I have to say that I understand that this relationship between science fiction and art is not one dimensional. Science influences science fiction as much as the vice versa. In fact, studies on this relationship show a very complex model of influence. This multi-directional influence connects science fiction and science (Bassett et al). However, this is the first time that I have seen art have the ability to influence science as much as science can influence art. I noticed that influence was much more one-sided before this.
Sources
Plafke, James. "Aerial Imaging Plate Turns Holograms into Touchscreens, Upstages Star Wars." ExtremeTech. Ziff Davis, Inc, 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Rutherford, Adam. "From Fantasy to Reality: How Science Fiction Has Influenced Technology." The Guardian. WIRED.com, 22 Sept. 2010. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Sterling, Bruce. "Science Influenced by Science Fiction." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 22 Sept. 2010. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Gresh, Lois H., and Robert Weinberg. "The Science of Anime: Mecha-Noids and AI-Super-Bots." (2005).
Bassett, Caroline, Ed Steinmueller, and George Voss. "Better Made Up: The Mutual Influence of Science fiction and Innovation." (2013).
Hi Anthony, I'm glad you were able to understand the dynamic relationship between art and science in a new perspective after this lecture. I also thought this week's lecture nicely tied all the topics we learned throughout the course. It is pretty cool what creativity can do by allowing individuals to be innovative in both art and science. Good post!
ReplyDeleteThis week really helped remind me what the definition of a relationship is. When we say there is a relationship between science and art, it cannot just be one-sided. Relationships go both ways and this week's unit really illuminated that fact. It is interesting to think about the fact that before new technology is created, it has to be conceptualized. And that conceptualization usually occurs in some form of art. I also loved the small reference to anime because I recognize most of those characters! :)
ReplyDelete