Week 1 Two Cultures
On 7 May 1959, C.P. Snow introduced the ideal of two cultures in his famous Rede lecture at Combridge. He identified the two cultures as those of literary intellectuals and natural scientists. As a student majoring in Mechanical Engineering, the existence of two cultures has influenced my school life at UCLA. Every time I introduced myself to others, I said I am a science major. However, when thinking deeply, I cannot say that Mechanical Engineering is a pure science major. Being an engineer student, giving a presentation to the class is common. The presentation skills are considered as art skills! Engineering students use art skills to present scientific concepts all the time. Similarly, the internal structure of the building was usually designed by engineers but the outlook was design by artists.
LA's Space-Age Icon
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/ucla-engineers-help-fix-l-a-s-158066
I am an international student from mainland of China. Before I went to high school, I was only familiar with Chinese culture. For my high school, I went to a Sino-US school. Some classes were taught by American teachers and other classes were taught by Chinese teachers. I have been exposed to American teaching style and Chinese teaching style at the same time. Eventually, I can fit into different teaching styles and cultures pretty well. This helps me to adopt to my American campus life here at UCLA.
Chinese students and American students having Chinese paper cutting art class (Dan Wang 2012)
In the second edition of Two Cultures, C.P. Snow stated that a new "Third Culture" would emerge and close the gap between literary intellectuals and scientists. Meanwhile, according to Stephen Wilson, "Artists have been eager to adopt the fruits of technological research and others have been much influenced by the concepts and contexts of science." Art and science are combined unconsciously. There is not a clear way to distinguish science from art.
Tim Cook using animation to introduce new technologies used on iPhone 6S
http://www.newsweek.com/live-blog-apple-event-new-iphone-370094
When I applied to UCLA, I was only interested in the engineering curriculum and thought that's what I would do to complete my degree. However, after attending engineering school, I found that history, sociology, and linguistic classes were all listed in my degree requirement. This is the way that university helps me to sit in between two cultures and become that "Third Culture", as stated by vesna and Kevin Kelly.
References
Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.
Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1963. p.53.
Wilson, Stephen D. “Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology.” College Art Association Meetings. New York, New York, 2000. Print
Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print.
Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture." The Third Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. Feb. 1998
It is interesting that you point out the curriculum that offers through School of Engineering. When I was a first year student, as an engineering major, I was only interested within my own fields and those general education seemed redundant or even annoyed to me. As a fourth-year student, I now look back those courses I took outside of my major disciplinary and realize how critical they are. These courses not only expanded my horizon of my knowledge but also bridges the engineering with the other humanities major, which C.P. Snow refers as the “Third Culture.” It gives me a second thought on how I should present my own work so that it is more understandable for people with different backgrounds and cultures.
ReplyDeleteYou have interesting point. Before reading your post, I thought Mechanical engineering major is pure science major. However, after reading that presentation is considered art skills, now I think most science, math and stat courses that I took in UCLA are the combination of both science and arts. Also, I applied to UCLA as applied mathematics major, but I'd been taking humanities, history, art and social courses to fulfill my GE. So, I no longer believe CP Snow's claim that schools and universities are the sources of separation of two cultures, as schools and universities are trying to reduce the gap between the two cultures by either giving assignments to students that require both science and art skills like the engineering presentation you did or letting students experience all different cultures by having general education system.
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