Week 1: Two Cultures

Hi, my name is Ariel Jao and I am a fourth year student who has very recently completed her Economics and Accounting degree at UCLA. After restrictively taking pre-requisite after requisite, I am hoping this course will allow me to weave in creativity and incorporate flair into all my work, even though what I am pursuing appears incredibly systematic and rule-obliging.

I acknowledge C. P. Snow’s viewpoint on how schools are responsible for fostering the gap between arts and sciences. Specifically at the great education institute that I am too familiar with, UCLA – as an outsider taking a stroll from the North side of campus to the South side you will notice subtle differences – mainly in architecture. However, when you are mentally engaged in the student community, freshmen orientation group leaders TEACH you about this specific divide which continues to be passed down through each generation.  (At the odd chance that you are ill-informed of this “north-south culture”, north campus refers to arts and humanities majors while south campus pertains to the sciences and engineering ones).

The new thing to do now for students is to diversify our main focus with a sprinkle of edge. For example, now you can easily be an Environmental Studies major with a specialization in computing. These mixes attribute to the point John Brockman tries to make about an ideal third culture. Contrary to past scholars, our generation has become more aware of how art and science do come hand in hand and one can complement the other.

Professor Vesna talks about negative stereotypes that can discourage you from pursuing anything not fitting of your mold. I found this point interesting and when taking a step back and looking at how I have lived my life, I notice that it’s hard to venture out to the extremes because of the lack of structure that may lie there.

In my household, money motivates you and becoming an artist is – unrealistic. I am starting to figure out that the most successful people in this word are artists. In fact, Will Smith one said that being realistic is the most commonly traveled path to mediocrity. Even in finance, the only form of art we can express is through our excel formatting. If you don't consider this technology a form of art, do remember that Bill Gates and his partners created this universal program because he understood from a scientific and quantitative point of view, how office productivity could change the future. And that is artistically genius.

[1] Vesna, Victoria, perf. Two Cultures, Part 2. UC Online Program, 2015. Web. 05 Apr 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUr4xxZ_0gw&feature=youtu.be>.

[2] Snow , C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. 7th. London: The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1961. Print.

[3] Kelly, Kevin . "The Third Culture ."Science. N.p., 13 Feb. 1988. Web. 05 Apr 2015.

<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/279/5353/992.full>.

[4] "Street Artist: Blu: The Mural Legend in Berlin – photos and report by Street Art BLN." BLU. Web. 05 Apr 2015. 

<http://www.streetartbln.com/blog/category/artists/blu-artists/>

[5] "Vintage Glory: This Was the Microsoft Team in 1978." Web. 05 Apr 2015. 

<http://www.softpedia.com/blog/Vintage-Glory-This-Was-the-Microsoft-Team-in-1978-293031.shtml>

[6] "And the winner of the North vs. South Campus Challenge is....ALL Bruins!" Web. 05 Apr 2015. 

<http://www.theuclafund.ucla.edu/news/nvschallengewinner.aspx>