Do you believe people are "artistic"/"scientific", or just are?

It’s not just culture, it’s the whole right side/left side brain discussion. There is plenty to read about it if you are really interested.

I do both.

Much of it is culture. Left/right brain stuff is mostly religion the way most people understand it, although there is some basis in fact. The best way to see it is as modes of operating. They are not always in conflict, though they can be. People don’t have to develop one mode exclusively, but they’re encouraged to for many reasons—and it tends to be more comfortable.

There are plenty of disciplines that need to synthesize creative and analytical mindsets. Mathematics, for one (as opposed to computation). Writing is another.

There was some work in the mid-90s in psychology about problem-approach styles that went along these lines… I’d have to dig to find you a source, though.

I am not convinced there’s a real separation between artists and scientists. I am a scientist and plenty of my coworkers (fellow scientists) have a deep and abiding affection for writing, music, and other art forms. I was surprised to find that when one of my coworkers organized a trip to the ballet, there was a better turnout than we get at most parties. And the best scientists I know are great scientists specifically because they’re creative.

I do think there is a distinction to be made between people who pursue one or the other as a career. But I think this is a problem of practicality. My best friend is an opera singer, and we have each had to invest nearly all of ourselves in our career—I can’t imagine doing either art or science halfway and being even slightly successful in either.

I do not think there is much justification for the idea that brain lateralization has to do with either art or science. Very few characteristics have been shown to be exclusively the domain of the right brain or the left.

I am very much a classical artistic type; my husband has the soul of an engineer. Both my sons are very creative and sensitive computer scientists. Nature? Nurture? I dunno.

I think creativity is largely due to your imagination and literally how vivid it is. If you are an artist, chances are when you imagine something in your head you see colours and shapes quiet clearly…there has been a study conducted that found a correlation between individuals recorded “imagination clarity” and blood flow to the visual cortex…..that may have something to do with an individuals ability to produce what they see in their minds eye.

I’m sure that you can be scientifically minded and artistically inclined at the same time. I am. I find maths and science quiet easy to comprehend and I am a painter. I think at the end of the day it is the path you choose to take that determines if you are one or the other or both….

I often wonder how many people are fantastic artists, but they have no idea because they have never tried.

Leonardo da Vinci was not the last great artist who was a great scientist as well.

Scientists don’t all take the time to explore creative arts but they require great creativity to be great scientists.

Great artists, including sculptors and painters require knowledge of anatomy, chemistry, and physics to do what they do.

I was an accomplished medical researcher and accidentally discovered that I could carve soapstone, marble and alabaster with skill that baffled me completely.

Others were impressed with my work as well.

There are too many assumptions made about the supposed disconnect between scientific and artistic aptitude.

It is a right brain, left brain issue. One is better at reasoning and mathematics and the other better at creativitiy. However, (and I am talking to myself) never fully believe you are one or the other. I am an artist working in finance and my own doubt makes my job very hard every day. When I should just allow myself to think I am good at both.

@Dr_Lawrence like you have said Da Vinci was a great scientist too, who contributed so much to science. A great reminder.

I think there is a grain of truth to that divide, but I think it’s been over-hyped.

Take, for instance, my wife and I. She is more artistic and creative than I am while I can do complex math in my head. I know people who are only marginally more scientific than me who literally can’t come up with creative ideas though; the story-writing I do as an RPG gamemaster is totally beyond them.

However, there are other factors to consider about brains. My wife isn’t stupid by any stretch, but she lacks a mental blackboard. She can be driving, see a car in the rear-view mirror, and as soon as she takes her eyes off the mirror, she has no clue where that car behind her is. There are many intelligent dyslexic people as well; people whose brains are similar to her’s. As for me, I am somewhat autistic, but not to the point that other Aspies I know are; I am actually fairly creative.

Of course, those with HFA or AS pretty much turn that whole left-brain/right-brain thing on it’s ear. But even amongst neurotypicals, who says you can’t be strong on both sides at the same time?

My daughter is an artist but has a science degree. She can design clothes etc, but knows the dying, shrinking and wearing qualities of the fabrics.
So I would say you can easily mix the two together.

I think forensic artists are interesting ;)

@Dr_Lawrence Similar situation with my daughter.

Maby some are only artistic, some only scientific and others are both…

Science is art. At least Richard Dawkins thinks so.

When my son went to university, he was so impressed by how many people were involved in both the sciences and the arts. He himself went in thinking he would be a lit major and ended up in computer science, partly because so many of his quirky friends were in that major. I definitely don’t think there needs to be a split, but some of us are more oriented in one direction or another.

I think knowledge is associated with creativity. You need knowledge for science and for the arts. The more you know, the more creative you can be, since creativity is about putting together existing knowledge in new ways in order to solve problems.

Art is also about solving problems, but the problems are not as clearly delineated. The artist generally knows what they are after, and sometimes the art has a specific cognitive meaning, but at other times it has an emotional or kinetic or visual or aural meaning. These other kinds of meanings don’t translate well into words, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

The ability to find and retain knowledge is what sets you up to use your imagination, whether for art or science. When you imagine, you create new things in your mind, and some of those things make it out into the real world. So, no, I don’t believe artists and scientists are separate at all. They are pretty much the same thing.

Just are. Labels are for the ego.

There’s an obvious methodological separation between science and art, which is there for good reasons, but there’s no reason why one person can’t practise both.
I’d recommend it to anyone, actually. I think it would make you more complete a person to know both scientific reasoning and artistic feeling. You’re certainly missing out on a significant aspect of human experience if you disregard either.

@jerv
“As for me, I am somewhat autistic, but not to the point that other Aspies I know are; I am actually fairly creative.”
Aspies aren’t creative?

I used to have an autistic e-friend who was creating an entire fictional nation in amazing detail.
It’s an island on an existing plateau in I believe the North Sea of Europe. They speak a constructed language based on the old Germanic languages of Scandinavia, written in runes. They’re a bit xenophobic, they’re straightforward people who like to get to the point and don’t see any use in ritual social pleasantries, and they’re deeply conservative in everything, gathering in mass protest when the street signs are replaced by a new design.
He had detailed maps of the land, and photos, names and biographies of its politicians, and he made a recruitment video for its army. And he wrote a foreign businessman’s account of his visits to the island, and he kept a blog of the news items that happened there.

Find me a neurotypical person who can have that much fun with their imagination.

@Snarp
If he meant that literally, I have to disagree with him this time.
I agree that scientific findings more often than not have great artistic value. Much of this universe literally defies human imagination in size, intricacy and cleverness. If you’ve ever seen the Hubble Space Telescope’s photos of the Pillars of Creation, tried to imagine the size of the star VY Canis Majoris or struggled to wrap your head around the complex workings of the human body, I think you’ll agree to that.
But this is not science. Science is only the methodology of finding and systematically mapping that reality. You don’t compliment the glass for the flavour of the wine.

I can’t watch videos here, so I don’t know what Professor Dawkins has to say for it. I’ll watch it when I get home.

That depende who do you hang out with or what do you take in

I agree that both are possible. I always thought that if we could just find the right musical chord or sequence as a mathematical equation we could discover the secrets of the universe.

Well, I am left handed highly verbal, analytical and creative type, and I do think that many are just born with certain predisposistions towrards more creavtive & cerebral pursuits.

They say that lefties tend to use both sides of their brains more equally, however I have always joked about being a left handed/right brained kinda person.

In truth I think I am pretty well balanced these days.

I have also heard that lefties as well as some of the more ‘gifted’ intelligences also process info. about 3 times faster than the ‘average’ brain. I have alwys joked about having a fast brain, and a touch of ADHD at times…turns out this is no laughing matter as it falls into certain brain processes linked with intelligence and left handedness both.

I think everyone is hardwired to excel or find challenging in those areas that best match their brains function.

I MUST live with a lot of freedom, am not a 9–5er type, need lots of space to germinate and contemplate ideas, I do not do well with being micro-managed or put in rigid environments at all. Fortunetly I have been able to set my life up in a way that works for me and my rapid fire free associative brain. lolololol

I think, a lot of the time, people who are logical have trouble being creative and vice versa, but definitely not all the time. And I this sometimes this is because of how their brains are from birth, but usually it is just because society tends to make art and science out to be polar opposites. This is a shame, because they really don’t have to be polar opposites. Do people forget how much emphasis Einstein put on imagination?

I can remember a girl in one of my science classes several years ago who used to complain about science requirements; she used to say “I don’t understand why I should be required to take this class. I don’t care about science. I like the arts.” It struck me as so odd that she should think that she could only like one or the other.

My mother is an artist and my father is an engineer; they appreciate each others’ interests but can’t really identify with them. I was lucky enough to get a little of both from them. I want to study physics but I have all kinds of artistic hobbies; I love to draw and write, and I play a few instruments. I don’t plan on giving up any of these hobbies even as I pursue my future plans in the field of science. I want to be well-rounded; I can’t imagine why so many people seem to believe that they have to choose between creativity and science.

I’ve been encouraged from a very young age to be artistic. I’m naturally left handed, which is common among people whose “dominant” half of the brain is the right half, given that the right side of the brain controls the left side of your body and vice versa.

If you had told me I was going to dual major in Computational Mathematics and Computer Science when I was younger, I’d have told you that you were crazy. I was always going to be an artist.

It some point I made a shift and became very interested in computers and really found my passion for computer science in college. I absolutely love it and it’s my favorite thing to do in the world. I’ve also been writing and playing music since I was in high school.

I’ve always found myself to have a very co-existent marriage between my left and right brain. I’m artistic and creative, yet analytic, scientific, and mathematical, and it’s a combination that works very well for almost any field, including computer science. I’m actually considering getting an MFA in Interaction Design rather than an MS in Computer Science so that I can mix the two and work in a creative position as well as a scientific one.

I don’t think people are intrinsically married to one half of their brain, but I think people are encouraged to explore the half that exerts its dominance visibly. People who are good at the sciences are encouraged to take harder science classes in middle school and high school, and as such implicitly avoid any artistic exploration. The result of this is that very few scientific/analytical people discover a passion for art. The brain is like a muscle, and if you don’t exercise it, it will atrophy. I think a lot of our educational institutions push people to focus on one broad area over another, leaving the other out entirely.

@noyesa

Well said, although I must say that regardless of my high creativity in many areas if I was put to the task of solving some highly abstract math equation I’d spontaniously combust from grinding up the gray matter. lololol

@Coloma lol sure, but my point is that most people are very partial to one mode of thought because we’re kind of nurtured that way by our family, friends, and society. When I was artistic, I was encouraged to be more artistic and nothing else. With computer science, the opposite is true. I haven’t really done anything artistic since high school, and right now my most eloquent drawing would be a stick figure.

@nikipedia “I can’t imagine doing either art or science halfway and being even slightly successful in either.”

/Raises hand

Having lived both careers and lifestyles, I think there are fundamental lifestyle differences. There is more in common, though, than most of us think. I think most (successful) artists and many scientists rely on intuition and inspiration.

@noyesa

Hmmm…I think that everyone can develop their underdeveloped parts…lol
but…I do think that certain strengths are more inherited, hardwired, rather than conditioned.

The ol’ ‘nature vs. nurture’ thing again.

@Coloma Absolutely. I think it’s somewhere in the middle. Maybe when I was younger I could have become an amazing artist, but I don’t think I’m going to be the next great painter at this point. I think I could be very good at art, since I’m also very good at music. But I think I belong in computer science and nowhere else.

But even computer scientists can benefit from an artistic part of the mind. I might not be an artist, but my artistic knack influences my decisions and allows me to think about things creatively, which is why I don’t think the link between each half of the brain is a one way street.

@noyesa

You never know, we are in a constant state of change
Maybe after years of computer programming you will pick up the paints and be a Grandma Moses at 90 something! lol

Lately I have been having a huge urge to sculpt some monolithic creation out in my yard…how many semi’s would it take to haul my 40 foot monster to firing? hahahaha

Shift happens!

Do you mean like drawing and math. I love art math and science!

I once put together a syllabus for a course: “Mathematics for Visual Artists.” There’s a lot of valuable cross-talk between mathematics and visual art, and tons of interesting works have come from it. I know I’m not the first to do so, but one day I’d like the opportunity to teach it.

Regarding Professor Dawkins and science being art:

I watched the video @Snarp posted now.
Dawkins points out that great science shares certain properties with great art. It requires inspiration, it requires imagination, it requires hard work. And I’m sure it does, at least for some fields.
But to conclude from that that science is art would be comparable to concluding that tables are chairs. It would be an obviously wrong conclusion from just a few similarities. Art and science are still quite different in their fundamental nature.

And I have a hunch that the video title “why science is art” is one made up by someone else that Dawkins probably wouldn’t agree with at all. It doesn’t seem like the kind of mistake a seasoned scientist would make.

I think big interested brains love it all. The same brain that finds beauty in science will sense that beauty in art.

@Fyrius Many of the Aspies I know are not very creative. Of course, those that are creative tend to be very creative, almost like there is no middle of the road.
Then again, that’s just the ones I know personally so it’s possible that I just have too small a sample size (only a few dozen) to make an accurate observation.

@jerv
Fair enough.
My sample size wasn’t larger than yours, let alone randomly selected with no inclusion biases.

It’s not either-or. But sometimes, sadly, it’s neither-nor.

In my experience among scientists, active and intelligent scientists tend to be also very creative; not just creative scientists, but imaginative people with talent. A lot of them dabble in arts (painting, poetry, novels, dancing, music… whatnot) and do it pretty well. The reason they are not artists in addition to being scientists does not to me seem to be that they are only capable of one but not the other, but that to develop any skill to competence levels takes time, and there’s only so much time we each have.

My limited experience with successful artists seems to also suggest they are not just artistic, but also very bright and intellectually capable people, very capable of being scientists if they wanted to.

Lets see Michael Angelo Leonardo Divinci were artists mathematicians and scientists, so yeah its highly possible and im sure there are quit a few scientists/artists today.