Week One: Two Cultures, Third Culture...How About None?

The question that floats in my mind about all of the materials use for week one is…does there have to be a divide? In other words, in regards to the concepts and realities of the “Two Cultures” and the “Third Culture”, do they even have to exist?

The division or the “creation” of art and science becoming two separate entities came into existence during the industrial and enlightenment period (Vesna) and it was from then that the current education system is running. I agree with Robinson that that is where the problem lies. Children of today are learning from an education system whose purpose was aimed at the, “…economic circumstance of the industrial revolution (RSA).” So today it is all about STEM and little attention is being to the arts. Through continuing the education system of the past, the divide between art and science is always going to be separated and although they are two different things, after week one’s readings and videos, I feel as if art, science, and technology are almost synonymous with one another in that they each play hand in hand with one another.

So if the current education system is changed, would the “Two Cultures” or “Third Culture” even have to exist? Should we work on making this a reality?

I guess I’m taking it from the perspective of gender and sexuality. Humans are put into two groups. You have male on one end and female on the other, but where do you place those born in between the two sexes; for instance, herms, merms, and ferms? Now society is isolating the sexes that are in-between and created separate categories for them which in return creates psychological and physical problems (physical, if given surgery at birth to change their sexual organ) when the child does not know how or which gender group (woman or man) to fit in to.

So now we have the separation of art and science (Two Cultures). For the people who are mixing the two we have added a “Third Culture”. Possibly if the world doesn't change their way of educating, there might just be a fourth, fifth, and sixth culture. What exactly those cultures will consist of is beyond me; however, I hope that in the future the two disciplines will cease to exist because at the end of the day a certain level of intelligence is attached to art and science. You are so-so if you can do the arts and you must be really smart to do science. What is going to happen to the people who fall into the artist category or who can’t even get to that one? 

Works Cited:

"John Brockman: Matchmaking with Science and Art." Interview by Duncan G. Rowe. Wired.co.uk.

            N.p., 03 Feb. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2015. <wired.co.uk>.

N.d. Abbeville Press: Fine Art and Illustrated Books. Web. 5 Apr. 2015.

            <http://www.abbeville.com/bookpage.asp?isbn=0789207133>. Mona Lisa and Davinchi.

N.d. Personalloberty.com. Web. 5 Apr. 2015. Transgender Activist Wants All Children Born

            Genderless.

N.d. Wikia. Web. 5 Apr. 2015. <http://lab-rats.wikia.com/wiki/File:Confused_baby.jpg>. Confused

            Baby.

 "RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 06 Apr.

            2015.

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge: U, 1959. Print. 

Vesna, Victoria. "TwoCultures Part1." YouTube. YouTube, 30 Mar. 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.