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Art is deeply embedded in our world. It draws from the reality we live in, and in turn, the products and innovations that shape our lives often spring from an artistic wellspring. To pursue mastery in art is to seek a illuminating force—a light as vital as the sun, capable of spreading clarity and vision to everyone.
In our daily lives, art provides the true map for scientific creativity. We depend on artistic principles to refine and realize the pure products of science. Consider language itself: the structure of programming languages, the nuances of natural language, and countless other systems rely on an artistic foundation in their very conception.
Every spark of thought, every tremor of the mind, generates artistic potential. These raw ideas are like nascent forms, which, once released from the mind's shell, can be filtered and shaped into eloquent and meaningful contributions to the world.
Throughout various disciplines, the knowledge of art has produced essential frameworks. These are the documents that guide our understanding of material essence and the pathways to its core.
Art is like the gathering clouds that promise rain. Their movement across the sky is a sufficient sign of what is to come. Similarly, the emergence of artistic ideas is a powerful indication, often fulfilling and unraveling scientific mysteries.
Art acts as a skeleton or a blueprint, mapping an object's form long before its scientific reality is fully constructed. It is the method that reveals the precise point to aim for in any act of creation.
Therefore, art is a crucial focal point. It casts a special light on the future of any subject, combining the rigorous logic of mathematics with a collective, philosophical wisdom about the world
Why art can design science
Science and art seem to be irrelevant. Science is data-driven, objective and rational, while art is emotion-driven, subjective and perceptual. But in fact, science and art have never been completely separated, but complement each other for mutual achievement.
Ancient Greek artists used the mathematically defined golden ratio to give their artwork a sense of beauty in proportion, laying the foundation stone of Western classicist aesthetics. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci was both a great artist and a great scientist in his time. The human anatomy and mechanical inventions, or scientific principles and realistic techniques of light, shadow and focal perspective in his manuscripts, all embody the perfect combination of science and art.
Science is believed to primarily involve "critical" rather than "creative" thinking. But in many cases, critical thinking itself may not result in great progress in science. A good example is Bohr's atomic model. In 1913, Bohr needed a new theory to improve the classical planetary model to explain the irregular movement of electrons. And "Cubism" at the time represented by Picasso inspired Bohr.
Bohr believes that the trajectory of electrons is not as regular as the orbit and instead affected by our observation behavior. They are like the blurry brushstrokes or deconstructed paintings by Picasso or Braque, which only make sense when you stare at it long enough. This abstract atomic model paved the way for a great leap in quantum physics. Today, anyone working in fields of science or art understands that the similarities between their working principles far outweigh the differences, not as believed in people's stereotypes. For example, the scientist’s laboratory and the artist’s studio are both the last garden of Eden reserved for open exploration. Both continuously improve themselves through the feedback loop of thinking-action-reflection-reaction, and are committed to answering the major question we humans are facing - how can we change the world forward?
In the education system, more countries are beginning to adopt STEAM rather than STEM curriculum, adding "Arts" to "Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” in the hope that students focusing on science and technology can be also benefited from art education.
The French writer Flaubert once said: “The farther, the art becomes more scientific, and science more artistic: having parted at the base, they will meet someday at the top.