Week 1 Blog Post: Two Cultures
Here at UCLA, two cultures are so clearly divided– North and South campuses directly distinguish the difference between art and science, from the departments they house to the look and feel of each individual building. UCLA’s campus culture perpetuates the divide with North and South campus, with people from either side shunning each other or shaming each other. The rivalry exists even on social media, with people poking fun at each other when learning that they are not from the same side.
As a Statistics & Data Science major, I can feel the distinct divide between science and art. Statistics relies so heavily on precision and refining of models down to the thousandth of a percent, while art provides a free flow space for expression and creativity. The two cannot appear to be more different, but in fact, math and data science can be an art within itself. From a creativity standpoint, mathematical methods and proofs are inventive and creative in their own right. Data visualization can be considered both an art and a science, with creating effective graphs and charts being one of the most employable skills on the market right now.
Both art and science have multiple things in common, and that is that both fields require skills that expand beyond just the topic itself. The two are more linked despite there being such harsh lines drawn on their differences. Art and science both require skills like critical thinking and making inference and assumption. At the end of the day, both fields also require an audience to listen and see the creations both fields put out into the world.
Humpherys, Jeffrey. “Is Data Science more Art than Science?” LinkedIn, 21 July 2020, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-science-more-art-than-jeffrey-humpherys/. Accessed 5 April 2024.
Ogburn, William F. “Statistics and Art.” Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 27, no. 177, 1932, pp. 1–8. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2277875. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Singh Tharran, Aditya. “Data Science in Art and Creativity” LinkedIn, 30 October 2023, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-science-art-creativity-aditya-singh-tharran-p3uge/. Accessed 5 April 2024.
Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Prin
Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121–25. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577014. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Images Works Cited
Dykes, Brent. “Data Storytelling: Is It Art or Science?” RSS, 2 Feb. 2022, www.effectivedatastorytelling.com/post/data-storytelling-is-it-art-or-science.
Foster, Wendy. “Data Is an Art, Not Just a Science-and Storytelling Is the Key.” Shopify, 27 Apr. 2022, shopify.engineering/data-storytelling-shopify.
Tak, Nitya, and Noah D Danesh. 2021. Accessed 2024.
Hi Helena,
ReplyDeleteIt is so interesting to hear more about the Statistics and Data field as a Psychology student. Reading your blog further shows how divided the two campuses really are, and how different the majors offered at UCLA are. Since Psychology does include statistics, reading how statistics is precise even to the thousandth of a percent made me realize how Psychology combines both art and science, just as data science does. Using what you said about science being precise and art being a form of expression, Psychology is very similar. For example, psychologists use studies and research that has been evaluated through precision and science, but also allows the form of expression in their clients. Thank you for your post, it was very insightful!
Hi Helena,
ReplyDeleteI found it really interesting to hear your experience as a Statistics & Data Science major at UCLA. I have also seen jokes online about the divide between campuses and ultimately think it comes a long standing idea passed down through generations as my first time hearing this joke was at my new student orientation tour. I like how you explained how your major is comprised of math, science, and art and found this to be surprising and intriguing. I had not previously thought about math being a form of art but your point has made me rethink how computer science could also be considered an art form. I am a cognitive science major with a computing specialty and have spent a lot of time programming. I most definitely relate to how you explained the ingenuity required to complete math proofs and how that parallels the inventive thought process required for programming. Great post!