Isabella Fazio

11/6/19

English 110

Professor Emerson

                     Art and Science;Should Art and Science be Combined

Science and art is something that is taught to people every day. Some people have careers in those fields others just like to do it for fun in their free time. But having the two subjects combined together is something I have never thought of before. In my opinion, I think we should be starting to combine the two subjects together. Both fields are open and have so many different opportunities and job offerings in them. Combining them together would be something no one would think would work together or even put those two together. I think it would be a lot easier to teach people in some ways too. Over the past few weeks I have read some articles that have opinions on the whole science and art being put together. I also found an article on my own that has some strong points on how science and art can really teach and show you something when it is a strong topic.With these articles it shows how people really feel about the two topics. By being able to show someone a picture or video of something they could better understand the science behind it most of the time. 

Some people are probably thinking that the idea to put science and art together is stupid or just isn’t right. But I just think those people are scared to try something new. Having new things to experience or discover is something everyone should do in their lives. People hate change, once they get into one routine or process they don’t want it to change because they are used to it. It has probably happened to you at school or work, you have a routine and then one thing changes and throws it all off. I think those people just don’t want to see what would happen if we started to incorporate science with art. One article I read “The Future of Science…Is Art?” by Jonah Lehrer, and he says that “It’s hard to believe that a work of abstract art might have actually affected the history of science.”(5). Now I pulled this from his article because it is true, no one would believe that abstract art would have helped affected the history of science, but in fact in some ways it is easier to show people or teach people things when you have a physical picture,drawing, diagram, etc. 

Art teaches us how to draw or paint, that is at least what they tell you they teach your kids. But when I was in art I learned how to make something tell a story or show something more than what it is. In Yo-Yo-Ma’s article “Necessary Edges: Arts, Empathy, and Education” he says “The arts teach us that there is something that connects us all and is bigger than each of us.”(14). There is so much more to what is behind the picture,drawing, movies,etc. there is a message behind it that they are trying to show you. But most people don’t realize that because they just think it is a pretty picture or something. No, you have to look deeper into things to find the true meaning. You have to just look toast looking at it, you have to really think what was this person trying to capture.

When it comes to education and putting science and art together I think the best example for this is climate change. Climate change is a huge problem nowadays that everyone is talking about everywhere. In schools, especially when they are talking about it for example,.in my environmental class we talk about this topic almost every time we are in class because it is such a huge thing going on right now. When the climate change rally went on my teacher said our absent would have been excused because she wanted us to go out there and make a change of some sort. But it is a hard thing to understand or show how badly it is affecting us and our everyday lives.

Having pictures or drawings for this topic shows and proves a lot more in my opinion than having a textbook just putting out facts. In an article I found called “The End of Ice” by Bill McKibben, he talks about how climate change is affecting our ice as in the poles and where it is extremely cold. But he also says “But you don’t need data to understand what’s happening: Pictures will do.”(1). That I agree with 100% if you can’t see what the person is talking about you really don’t have any idea how bad or good the situation is they are talking about. In this case how it is.

Continuing in his article he talks about how pictures really do explain more and he explains his pictures that he took, which by the way are incredible and really do show what is going on in this world. Climate change is affecting our storms making them worse than ever, making our sea levels rise. Soon the Netherlands, New Orlenas, Miami, etc. will be underwater. It is also changing the migration patterns for some animals or they don’t even migrate at all. With the ice melting in Iceland and Greenland and all those other places. Bill says in his article that “But Katie Orlinsky’s pictures provide the close-up. For the past two years, Orlinsky has documented the toll that climate change is taking on the indigenous residents of six villages in northernmost Alaska. Her photographs from the front lines of global warming demonstrate what it means to live in a place where life is still tied to geography.”(3). Showing that picture and videos can say more than words.

All of those examples of things I said that are starting to/ are happening to us some people won;t believe when being taught ot told them without proof. Putting diagrams,pictures,movies,etc. In those types of lessons or wherever you are hearing it proves so much more. Putting science and art together in these types of situations is something that needs to happen more, it helps get the point across. Science and art being put together is something I really think needs to happen more because it can open up so many more opportunities for jobs and learning.

                                                       Work Cited 

Yo-Yo Ma, “Necessary Edges:Arts,Empathy, and Education” Elisha Emerson Website, https://elishaemerson.uneportfolio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/400/2018/09/YoYoMaNecessaryEdges.pdf 

Jonah Lehrer, “The Future of Science…Is Art?” Elisha Emerson Website,

Bill McKibben, “The End of Ice”, Une Library Website, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.une.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=242fcb65-c7e8-4041-907c-003cc3639909%40pdc-v-sessmgr06&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=118960548&db=a9h           

Bernhard Staehli, “Climate Change-Antarctic Melting Glacier in a Global Warming Environment” Posted by ShutterStock.

PopTika, “Hands touching science and network connection and data exchanges on glitter bright lights colorful background” Posted on ShutterStock.

Denis Kuvaev, “Closeup of brush and palette” Posted on ShutterStock

Jeff Orlowski, “Chasing Ice” Published on November 16,2012. Posted on The O’Farrell Charter School. https://www.ofarrellschool.org/apps/video/watch.jsp?v=141835 

Climate Cast, “Regenerative farms ‘producing more, opening new markets’ while fighting climate change” Published on NPR.https://www.npr.org/podcasts/414685982/climate-cast 

                                                        Multimodal element

For my essay I decided to incorporate the multimodal element by putting in pictures, a hyperlink to a movie on climate change and a hyperlink to a podcast on climate change. The first picture I chose for my element was a picture that went towards the science part of my essay. So the picture I picked was an atom and two arms were trying to touch it. I know it is a weird picture to pick but I really liked it because from when I was little in science atoms were my favorite thing to learn about for some reason. So when I saw the atom I thought it was a perfect picture to incorporate. For my second picture I picked a picture of a paintbrush with some paint on it being used on a painting. I chose this picture because painting is one of my favorite things to do and it was one of my favorite things to do in art class so I thought it was a really good picture to put into my element. For my third picture I chose was to show what climate change is doing to the Earth, In science we have talked a lot about how the ice was melting in the artics. So I chose a picture to show how bad it is happening. In my essay when I first start to introduce climate change into my essay on one of the words I have included a link attached to it to the movie “Chasing Ice”. The reason I chose this movie is because it shows every point I am trying to prove, that with seeing what is really going on and getting a first hand look explains and shows more to a person than them just reading some information. Finally I put in the same paragraph as the movie I put in a hyperlink to a podcast to climate change. The reason I did this is because it was just another thing for people to hear about what is going on and how listening to something can also help get a point across.