Artists and Scientists More Alike Than Different - Scientific American Blog Network

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Guest Blog
Artists and Scientists: More Alike

Than Different
By John Maeda on July 11, 2013

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Art and science. To those who practice neither, they

seem like polar opposites, one data-driven, the other
driven by emotion. One dominated by technical
introverts, the other by expressive eccentrics. For
those of us involved in either field today (and many
of us have a hand in both), we know that the
similarities between how artists and scientists work
far outweigh their stereotypical differences. Both are
dedicated to asking the big questions placed before
us: “What is true? Why does it matter? How can we
move society forward?” Both search deeply, and
often wanderingly, for these answers. We know that
the scientist’s laboratory and the artist’s studio are
two of the last places reserved for open-ended
inquiry, for failure to be a welcome part of the
process, for learning to occur by a continuous
feedback loop between thinking and doing.
I have always bridged art and design, science and

technology, navigating both poles and the space that
lies between them, with degrees in EECS from MIT
and a PhD in classical design from Tsukuba
University in Japan. In elementary school, my
parents were told at a parent-teacher conference that
I was “good at math and art” (but went on to tell
their friends I was good at math). My work
combining computer codes and traditional artistic
technique was one attempt to carve out a space in
the middle, and I find I’m always trying to find
others in my tribe, hybrids who seek to marry
disparate fields as a way of life.
In DaVinci’s time when expertise in art and science

had not yet matured to the polarized state in which
they exist today, they coexisted naturally. Of course,
science’s level of sophistication back then was quite
different. But from where I sit as the president of the
Rhode Island School of Design, it is clear to me that
even current practices in scientific research have
much to gain by involving artists in the process early
and often. Artists serve as great partners in the
communication of scientific research; moreover,
they can serve as great partners in the navigation of
the scientific unknown.
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That is why at RISD we have been leading a

movement to integrate Art and Design into the
recent focus on STEM and turn it into “STEAM.”
Our investigation began with an NSF-funded
workshop hosted at RISD in January 2011. “Bridging
STEM to STEAM: Developing New Frameworks for
Art-Science-Design Pedagogy” brought together
thinkers from the fields of Art + Design, Science,
Creative IT, Engineering, and Mathematics to
examine the ways educators and policy makers can
bridge the gap between art and science.
STEAM and arts integration are crucial in K-12

education, engaging students in the STEM subjects
and ensuring that creativity doesn’t fall by the
wayside as we chase innovation (how could it?). But
it’s also an important idea for research. Artists and
designers reformulate the questions that can guide a
project, rethinking or redesigning systems at their
base. In this vein, RISD is collaborating with the
University of Rhode Island and Brown University on
new ways to visualize oceanic data to see the impact
of climate change on marine life. The work began
with a joint course entitled “The Hypothesis Studio,”
focusing on the very questions at hand.
Historically, many researchers and organizations

have approached our school expecting students and
faculty to “design the poster” for their initiatives. It’s
true, an artist’s or designer’s expert hand can often
make the story of scientific discovery more
compelling, results more broadly understandable,
and complex choices actionable. DaVinci himself
said, “Art is the queen of all sciences communicating
knowledge to all the generations of the world. ” At
RISD, we just collaborated with Brown University on
a studio course dedicated to the concept of
Communicating Medical Risk, so that patients could
make truly informed decisions.
Artists and scientists tend to approach problems

with a similar open-mindedness and inquisitiveness
— they both do not fear the unknown, preferring
leaps to incremental steps. They make natural
partners. With such complementary thinking, there
is great potential when they collaborate from the
offset, resulting in unexpected outcomes that can be
exponentially more valuable than when they work
apart. You can see the power of collaboration
between artists and scientists in the decades of
advancement in computer graphics at SIGGRAPH;
in the latest exhibitions at the Science Gallery in
Dublin, or in the midst of groundbreaking scientific
results with the Large Hadron Collider and more.
ADVERTISEMENT
With all that we have to address in the world –
warming continents, fluctuating economies,
monstrous cities – pursuing scientific questions in
tandem with artists and designers may not seem like
conventional wisdom. But given the unconventional
nature and scale of the problems we face today, there
is real value to be gained from collaborations that
bridge the best talents we have in both the
quantitative and qualitative domains. Artists and
designers are the ones who help bring humanity
front and center, make us care, and create answers
that resonate with our values.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily
those of Scientific American.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
John Maeda
John Maeda is president of Rhode Island School of
Design and the author of The Laws of Simplicity
and Redesigning Leadership, which expands on
his Twitter feed at @johnmaeda.
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Saved to Dropbox • 15 Nov 2019 at 5:55 PM

Artists and Scientists: More Alike

By John Maeda on July 11, 2013

Art and science. To those who practice neither, they

I have always bridged art and design, science and

In DaVinci’s time when expertise in art and science

That is why at RISD we have been leading a

STEAM and arts integration are crucial in K-12

Historically, many researchers and organizations

Artists and scientists tend to approach problems

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

READ THIS NEXT

The U.S. Congress Has Started to Revive Gun

POLICY & ETHICS

Recycle Products, Not Ideas

Children Are Particularly Vulnerable to Climate

Apple Launches Virtual Health Studies Aiming to

BEHAVIOR & SOCIETY

Is There Really a Difference Between Drug Addiction

The U.S. Needs a Mental Health Czar

Get smart. Sign up for our

"I Don't Know If I'm a Scientist":

By Grace Lindsay on July 10, 2013

Ada Yonath and the Female

By Kathleen Raven on July 11, 2013

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ARABIC

Press Room Site Map

Advertise Privacy Policy

SA Custom Media Use of Cookies

Terms of Use International Editions

Scientiﬁc American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial

© 2019 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF NATURE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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