The two articles that I read described the similarities between the fields of art and science. The first article entitled, “Art as a Way of Knowing” by Marina McDougall, suggested that a link between these two fields is that art encourages public engagement in science but also argues that there is much more linking the two than just that. Art and science both serve as a method of inquiry and knowing. According to the article, since the late 1960s the role of art in science learning has been rapidly revolutionizing. Since the post-Sputnik era, there has been significant blending between art and science lines to create new forms of engagement with and understanding of the world. Learning through art is a way to interact with the natural and social world. Art and science are both based on experiences that involve the use of a combination of different senses. They are also learned through the same methods, require devotion and passion, and have similar purposes – to create a representation of our surroundings. Leonardo da Vinci has always been my favorite artist. He is a genius in so many fields that it is almost an insult to only call him an artist. He is also a scientist who performed many studies focused on observation of various phenomena. His skills as an artist were applied to creating depictions of utmost detail and engineering many machines. He dissected carcasses to learn anatomy and created anatomical representations that were way ahead of their time. Leonardo da Vinci is a perfect example of the intertwined relationship between artistic and scientific genius.

The second article entitled, “The Art of the Brain” by Ashley Taylor, also underscored the vibrant connection between art and science. Much of science cannot be visualized without art diagrams. Drawings of the natural world were extremely important during the early years of science before the modern age of technology. Even now, we learned by watching Jay Holmes’s video about the Museum of Natural History, experts who study morphological differences between spiders to discover new species depend on great art skills to be able to depict the details that cameras cannot capture. This article also brought up the fact that art and science share a purpose since they both try “to portray an aspect of the world that they think is important” (6). They both try to learn something, to teach an idea, and to try to understand the world. Another commonality between the two is that there are certain guiding principles to both fields. The scientific method in science involves the formation of a hypothesis to explore a topic. There are also methods in art such as the Stanislavski method commonly referred to as “method acting” which helps train actors to bring out believable emotions in their performances. But like in art, scientists do not always follow the method of testing hypotheses and doing deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is also used which focuses on gathering observations of different things to then formulate a hypothesis based on observations. There is not always a hypothesis to be tested; sometimes scientists want to first show what they observed and then aim to explain. Much the same can be said about art aiming to show first without explaining and then generate thoughts based on the observations. The last point that the article presents is an interesting thought about how our entire interaction with life is all based on the art of perception. Everything that is observed in the world, whether it is art or science, is all processed and perceived through our brain mechanisms. It is all to some degree our imagination that accounts for our idea of the world.

My biggest connection to art is through music – I play both the piano and the violin. Art not only teaches you the patience and determination you need to have in scientific fields, but also encourages creativity that is also necessary in scientific research. After playing these instruments and taking physics in high school, I began to become interested in how these wooden instruments really work. Practicing these instruments every day, and learning about their mechanisms in physics class sparked my interest in learning more about frequencies and the uniqueness of string vibrations. I also visited many art museums and was fascinated by how art has evolved as scientific knowledge progressed. I would say that art is also a science because scientific concepts such as the idea of perspective need to be learned to be able to accurately depict what the eye sees. Seeing how art evolved overtime and how science has expanded is always mind-blowing; and seeing how each helped the other grow through its contributions is equally incredible.