 |
| (click on image to enlarge) |
Watercolour, marker and
©2014 Charlene Brown
Half a century ago, C.P. Snow
said the ‘two cultures’ of scientists and artists were separated by a gulf of
mutual ignorance.
Traditional separation of art
and science disciplines at universities has resulted in degrees that are
‘knowledge silos’ producing graduates with a deep, but narrow, expertise,
prepared only for highly structured specializations.
Given that breakthrough scientific developments and innovation are often seen to occur at the intersection of disciplines, most universities have
developed interdisciplinary programs.
Unfortunately, the disciplines selected
are often closely related, and the bodies of intersecting knowledge are not so
much complementary as overlapping and redundant. I think that the
intersections of diametrically opposed disciplines would be most likely to be
productive. Graduates need to be able to see problems from other, often
divergent, perspectives and they have to be able to communicate with
previously-mentioned experts in narrow, highly specialized disciplines.
