Week 1: Two Cultures

When Snow points out “…the intellectual life of the whole of western society is increasing being split into two polar groups,” I felt the resemblance between the general social phenomenon and my personal experience in high school. In Chinese education, we are required to choose to study either science subjects or arts subjects by our preference at the first or second year of high school. However, the so-called preference is more like the need or advantage of a person for the university entrance examination; some people may really like those arts subjects but tend to study science because of the consideration of their grades advantage in science, or even career in the future.

I think the division of people into restricted culture environment causes some predicament. People of different “culture belongings” are forced to go further in their own scientific research or artistic exploration, resulting in the polarization of these two cultures. Just as Snow’s analysis of diverse traits of people in different cultures, our impression of “science nerd” and “crazy artist” tells us that the polarization of two cultures makes people become distinct in thought and behavior. This predicament even encompasses me today. I really like literal culture: I learned Chinese calligraphy and many kinds of painting since I was very young. After years of learning and practicing, I won awards and prize in states and even national competition. I am interested in visual arts such as photography and cinematography as well, and I think I was trained with artistic temperament. However, even person like me is a science student in high school and a math major in UCLA today.

Two of my photography works post-effected by Photoshop: 

Los Angeles night view & New York Manhattan city view    

Although I felt the predicament long before, I had nothing to do with it until today when I was enlightened by ideas of C.P. Snow who argues that the emergence of the third culture would fill the gap between science culture and literal culture, and John Brockman who further states that this new culture would work through artists and scientists’ communication with the public and make more general influence. This idea reveals to me the tendency of art and science’s getting closer in daily life. These changes are being brought, say, in the cinematography, one field that I like, by people like James Cameron and Christopher Nolan. In the time between making Titanic and Avatar, Cameron spent several years creating many documentary films (specifically underwater documentaries) and co-developed the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. Described by biographer as part-scientist and part-artist, Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies. Similarly, Interstellar, in the mean time of entertaining people through its stunning visual effects, further works as a bridge linking science and art as it shows the public the realistic astronomical model. The physicist, Thorne, even learned new things about black holes by working on this, and he wrote several papers about the discoveries he made about gravitational lensing in rapidly spinning black holes.

The movie Interstellar features black holes heavily in its plot. 

Director Christopher Nolan worked closely with physicist Kip

Thorne to create stunningly realistic depictions of black holes.

The hard work by these people is not only enjoyed broadly by the public, but also helped change the world by the revolution of technology and delivering the merged culture. Just as Kevin Kelly considers the third culture, rooted from and also servicing technology, is the production of science, the lesson offers me a new ideology that the mathematics or physics, whatever the science that I learn in UCLA today offers me the tool to make the potential change in the future if I apply them elaborately with the literal arts that I like by my creativity.

For Cameron, who explored the Titanic wreck during his production of 

the Academy Award-winning film, reaching the deepest point on 

Earth was a long-term goal. “Imagination feeds exploration,” he says. 

“You have to imagine the possible before you can go and do it.”

Citations:

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.

Rowe, Duncan Graham. "Matchmaking with Science and Art." Weird. 3 Feb. 2011. Print.

Harry, Knowles. "Harry interviews James Cameron regarding AVATAR – No, Not that one, the One You're Dying To See! – Part 1!" Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved January 10, 2007.

Kaplan, Rebecca. "Interstellar: Bridging Science and Art." Tech Times. 3 Nov. 2014.

<http://www.techtimes.com/articles/19301/20141103/interstellar-bridging-science-and-art.htm>.

Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture." The Third Culture. Feb. 1998.