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Are you an artist or a scientist?
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At school I preferred science and considered “artists” – i.e. people who only excelled in English or French or History – to be thick.
My darling beloved tells me that she spent her university days (blue stocking, dontcha know) thinking science undergrads were thick. She’s a linguist.
Photography requires artistic and scientific skills. I often feel that I’m forcing the arty side. The science side is measurable, tangible, adjustable. The artistic side is the opposite and reaches a different part of your psyche (I was going to say brain, but that’s the scientist in me coming out). For me the artistic aspect of photography is an effort, but I know a professional photographer who produces amazing photos and pays scant regard at all to any science in photography.
Sometimes I like a photo immediately and viscerally (never one of my own….yet) in the same way that Mozart’s overture to Don Giovanni grips me by the guts and squeezes warmth through my whole body. Paintings – I like Renoir best – can do the same. These aren’t logical, scientific reactions.
After that preamble, the question is: are you an artist or a scientist?
Me? I’ll answer scientist because I am simply trying to become an artist using scientific methods.
Me, definitely a scientist. I’d rather rely heavily on fact than second hand biased information that becomes skewed by time, politics, opinion and ambiguity :) – we’ll include English in that :)
Pete,
You’re obviously an Artist,
A Scientist would never allow a survey such as the one above to be written-All the great scientists are great artists,
and maybe school is not the place to make the distinction, in general.
Maybe its a 20th century thing to feel the need to decide to be one thing or another,
if so, thats probably symptomatic of our modern world,
which requires increasing specialization.Some people who would have difficulty with your survey (off the top of my head)
Leonardo,
Brunelleschi,
Vermeer,
Christopher Wren,
Brunel,I wont go on…
Though it’s good to pick dead people,
they can’t answer back :DIf by art you mean the creation of images (which I’m sure you don’t)
then have a look at the gallery here-http://www.princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery/poster.html
And again,
I haven’t ticked a box myself,
because the ‘I am not worthy’ checkbox was not given as an option-Why do you always save these for monday mornings?
:D
j
I’m going to sit on the fence. I’m a scientist by day, and an artist by night. I’m technically trained, but creatively driven.
That, and the fact I don’t like being put in a box. I’m claustrophobic :D
(I’m not really – I’m just being facetious)
Tim
I ticked the artist option.
When it comes to photography I don’t think I have that much creativity or originality about me, but when it comes to taking pictures any logic gets a bit fuzzy and cold science goes out the window; it’s a bit like the ‘science’ of cooking where a pinch of this and a dash of that create a unique result. By that measure I’d say I’m a cook but I’m no chef.
I have a tendency not to absorb volumes of books or technical notes on exactly how/why things work but seem to pick up the jist of it or sporadic details from place to place. Sometimes this jist is what sets apart an OK picture from a cracking one; the same jist also prevents that OK picture becoming a cracking one.
I’m an artist, and that’s the box I ticked.
Now I’m off to cut off a piece of my ear…
…or perhaps someone else’s ear…
…less painful for me.
Rob.
Im putting half a tick in each box as I am a scientific artist, or an artistic scientist – not sure which? :lol: :lol:
Im not ticking either box.
I am half and half. I absolutely love science. I study Physics and I love it. And next year I hope to study computer and network management. So obviously thats the science bit. But I also absolutely love art. To be honest, i’ve never done art as a study, apart from photography, but my girlfriend and my father are both interested in painting so I do have a good appreciation for art.
Flipflip wrote:
… but my girlfriend and my father are both interested in painting so I do have a good appreciation for art.
Sounds more like a non sequitur than a scientific conclusion :)
PeteTheBloke wrote:
Flipflip wrote:
… but my girlfriend and my father are both interested in painting so I do have a good appreciation for art.
Sounds more like a non sequitur than a scientific conclusion :)
:lol: :lol:
PeteTheBloke wrote:
I’ll answer scientist because I am simply trying to become an artist using scientific methods.
For me the quote above would apply. I am still learning about the science but I would find this side of easier than the artistic side of it.
I believe that an Artist will often use Science to help him realise his vision and a Scientist, upon being exposed to great Art, will apply his scientific knowledge to working out why that sample of Art is great.
I’ve just got in after a twelve hour night shift so I hope that makes sense :wink:
Dave.
Well I see beauty in everyday objects…I see faces and I think..man…I would love to photograph that persons face….and when I walk down the street my eye is constantly being drawn to things around me that I would like to frame in a picture. I hear poetry in ordinary speech..and I am often inspired to write (pretty dire) poetry.
I appreciate science and know that it is the pursuit of knowledge and it is the thing that sets us apart from (not above) all other living things. I have no religion..except for science …but I truly do not have a mind capable of ever understanding to any large degree the science of the beauty I see around me. I love technology..I am bedazzled by gadgets…but I rarely ever need or want to know how they work except on a basic level.
So what I’m trying to say is that I think I must be an artist….trying to discover where his artistic skills lie ..and I really hope that I have found the place at last :D (I hope so anyway…cos I really wasn’t very good at painting… :wink: )
Robbie
8)Good question. I think I’m neither. Just a simple plain ordinary guy that fell into photography by accident rather than good management and seem to be happily making a living from it. I’m not driven scientifically or artistically ……. just customer driven (with a big stick in their hand !). I’m basically lazy and just tend to learn what I need to know (and research it as I need to know) as I prefer to spend my spare time living life and having as good a time as possible on my limited small income. My origional background is in computers and that was in the days when memory boards were core memory (max 8Kb each and probably ?8k each also … LOL) and loads of transistors were to be seen everywhere. I also saw a working (but never got to work on it) valve computer. I moved on to process engineering as the transistor was being replaced by the IC or chips as they were better known as. In those days in the mid 70’s you’d need 10 big warehouses to house a computer system to do what your laptop does today.
So, I’m afraid, my technical and engineering skills are now in the archieves under the heading “vintage”, waiting to be classified “antique”. Maybe they already are …….. not checked in ages !
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