artsy/tech hybrids (part 2)

Today's pics are from my Flickr archives. Feel free to click on any image to see a bigger version.

Looking forward to going to the National Cartoonist Society's Christmas party this afternoon! Possibly also the new Harry Potter movie tonight, though I might wait until I can get someone to go see it with me. Not sure if I want to risk hearing spoilers before then, however.

A few days ago, I posted a short Blathering about artsy/tech hybrids, and asked if there were any others out there.



Holy toledo, I was overwhelmed by the response in my Livejournal and Blatherchat discussion boards. There are a LOT of you hybrids out there. :-)

Though I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. Unless you're utterly and happily devoted to your career path and have no other strong interests OR are a hermit-type who spends all of his/her time at home watching television outside of work hours, most people tend to be drawn to multiple disciplines.



But I was surprised by the number of people who, like me, are now working in a career completely unconnected to their original educational path. And I also enjoyed finding out more about some of my friends who had interests of which I wasn't aware before. AND I learned about Tunisian crocheting. :-D

Anyway, here are excerpts from some of the responses:

---------------

From Chris Conway:

"My degree at university was Chemistry - which hasn't been of great use to me as a musician.
My Chemistry prof was pretty sure I wasn't a scientist..."

---------------

From surrdave:

"I have found that keeping the techie day job helps feed the creative spirit. Partly it's the general motion, motivation and momentum. Partly it's having things to say because I hear a lot. Partly it's just keeping the mind a bit jumbled.

(I spent a year majoring in music, then gave it up and got degrees in Physics and Geology. Now I work in computers and do a lot of music.)"

----------------



From keristor:

"Well, most sorts of engineer are a combination. So are a lot of musicians, there's a big overlap between music, mathematics and the sciences (allegedly some of the best musicians are found in physics labs!), and a lot of chemists and biologists are very visually oriented. So I don't think that the fabled art/science split actually exists (any more than the religion/science split does), most people partake of both.

(I'm not into visual art, really, because I have almost no visual memory, but programming correlates well with both music and literature. Including the common "I don't know who wrote this, but I don't like it!" "Er, it was you!"...)"

----------------

From aunt_marion:

"I trained as a linguist. And now I bully databases into submission for a living... Though more often than not they bully me."

-----------------



From ally_in_canada:

"I guess I am...but my artsy and my tech are relatively far apart! I'm techy in some of my jobs (AS400 drudge/desktop publisher/computer consultant) but my artsy side is very important, and I recently got another job as an instructor at Michaels, and spent the entire last weekend doing demos of the Knifty Knitter. Like many things nowadays, artsy and tech merge when it gets to the web. I may have been spending most of least weekend teaching people how to "knit without needles!" but I also referred many of them to web pages and groups where they could get help and patterns. I've recently learned and entirely new yarn craft, tunisian crochet, which I would have never heard of except for the web."

---------------

From Martin GK:

"My strong school subjects were the sciences, my degree is Engineering, my job is computer consultancy - but I enjoy it when I can use some of those skills on the music side, be it in running a sound desk (where some basic phyics knowledge on waves/frequencies is extremely useful, and engineering even more so) or, more recently, in setting up and running the FilkArchive site at http://filkarchive.scrumpy.org - which I coded from scratch as an exercise in teaching myself perl website design that has come in very useful in other areas (more work-based) since!"

----------------



From jhayman:

"Fascinating topic.

I consider myself educated on the science side: two degrees in sciences might support that (BSc and BScN). But... But... I'm pretty certain I have a strong artsy side as evidence by that songwriting, beading, [insert multiple other needlearts], sewing, cartooning (by the dark of the moon), designing, um...

Work is science oriented, though all the healing arts have an interplay of science and art. I couldn't function without a strong grounding in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pathophysiology, statistics, etc.

My personal life is increasingly arts oriented. I really mean that. Over the years, the arts have become much more an important part of my life, both in how I choose to spend time and in how I consider time to be well-spent.

And some activities blend both: like building web sites. Making them (from scratch) requires both the technical and the creative. But then, really, so do ALL the arts.

Ah, we are of one mind..."

----------------



From phillip2637:

"When I finished high school, my best subjects were English and Math. I had days when I figured on following one of those into chemistry or the other into journalism. Making no specific decision, I then studied Radio & Television Arts, did nothing with it career-wise, and took night courses in psychology and statistical analysis. All of which combined to turn me into a software designer, sometime photographer, and now, a weekend songwriter...to mention only a few of many semi-serious interests. Since the software hasn't been a regular paying gig in some time, it's hard to tell which are work and which are hobbies.

I blame it on a drunken guidance counselor. :-)"

------------------

From Peter Alway:

"I'm kind of artsy-science, but not so much tech, at least as tech has been narrowly defined in the last 20 years (computers and digital electronics).

My degrees are in physics (BA and MS) and I teach astronomy, but my other job is publishing, and my drawings and historical writing are central to my publishing business. Of course the drawings are more like technical illustrations, and the history is the history of rocketry and space exploration.

I've only gotten serious about music in the last two or three years, and I don't make money from that, but it is becoming more important to me.



Funny, just yesterday, I was talking about spectroscopy in class, and I was making a point about how our eyes have lousy spectral range and resolution compared to our ears, and illustrated it with the dulcimer in class. I've done that for a few years, now, but this time I also played a little tune on the dulcimer before the on-topic demonstrations, simply because if you see a musical instrument, you expect and want to hear music from it or it's just Not Right.

I actually feel that my scientific and artsy sides are very much integrated with each other."

-----------------

From D'Glenn:

"Well I identify pretty strongly as a geek, and that's where I earned my living before I got sick, the social environment in which I'm most comfortable, the direction a lot of my spare-time thinking has always gone (not just "my field"; science/tech in general) ...
... but if you catch me unawares and ask out of the blue, "What are you?", my gut-level answer is, "A guitarist." I'll probably pause to think (the censor-circuit in my brain is pretty quick) and try to guess a context and choose a "more suitable" answer for whatever context I guess to say aloud, but the gut says "guitarist" before "human", "techie", "Christian", "transgendered person", or anything else. "Poet" comes pretty close behind "guitarist".

Which way do I think I lean? I have no clue, thinking about it. But some low-level part of me identifies more strongly as an artist.

Funny thing, I never really thought that much about how creating art is like programming, but I've often contemplated how programming is like creating art. Perhaps that's another clue as to which way I skew."

------------------



From Beckett: (whom I get to see in two weeks, yay!!)

"Hmm. Started out in hard sciences (really!), quickly realized I didn't have the right brain for it, went into animal science/animal behavior, managed to get a BS degree in that. All while supporting myself at a myriad of jobs, but the art jobs I found kind of kept taking over. Got out of UC Davis, looked around and decided to seriously pursue arts, illustration as a career. Got told by a fathead male art director that I'd never make it as an illustrator and to give up and go raise a family or something. Got mad, researched art schools and went to the Academy of Art in San Fran. And the rest is history, really. But I will say the scientific training has come in handy for a number of reasons:
-analytical thinking
-learning how to study and teach oneself new skills and disciplines
-pragmatism and skepticism
-being able to self-identify as more than just my profession(s)- very handy for switching jobs as needed
-life experience that there's always someone out there better, and getting a swelled head does no good for one's art.
-um, and probably more, but I have two hungry boys to feed right now... (so the comment of 'give up and go raise a family or something' has kind of come full circle, I guess, but I _can_ do the art; just now I choose to raise the kids, right?)"

------------------



From bitpixie:

"I don't know if I'm more artsy or techy because I wouldn't want to pick just one. I'm not really happy unless I'm combining everything.

I started college as a Computer Engineering major and after programming several calculators, I got bored and tried taking more courses in art and sociology (I love observing how people interact and how the setting affects that), but it wasn't ever enough. Eventually, I switched to Architecture. I figured it was a good combination of math and art. In my new major, I had a chance to work on my painting, drawing, photography and, of course, building design, but I also had to learn about HVAC systems, material strengths and construction techniques. During the summers, I worked for my dad, a contractor, working up bid estimates and drafting building plans. I still took programming and math courses, but now I was geared toward computer graphics for architectural walk-thrus.

For a year after I graduated, I worked for a small firm that built custom homes. Now, I do special effects, crowd simulation and set design for computer animation. I think my job is perfect for drawing from of all my experiences. Plus, I'm surrounded by people who are also artsy techies and techy artists. I love it so much!

And, of course, part of my spare time is devoted to dabbling on the web :)"

--------------

From missquirt:

"My undergraduate degree was in Arts and Science, with pretty much a 50/50 course split in arts and science courses. I also have a minor in math, but the two upper level courses that completed my minor were "History of Math" and "Selected readings on "Women in math"" because math and I had a fight partway through third year. Most of the women I talked to in math had double majors in music/literature/drama, especially the younger women.

I took one computer science course because my dad wanted me to, and while I did well, and I could see how one could get sucked in to that form of problem solving, it didn't really make me passionate.



Now I'm doing a masters in arts. I'm glad for my science backgroud, because it gives me great insight into how scientists think, but I think I've come to realize that science is something I could do well rather than something I really enjoyed. I'm having great fun deconstructing my worldview (like a good little grad student) so I think I'm in the right place. That said, I think there are huge parallels between, for example, math and history."

--------------

From stevieannie:

"I'm the other way round - my degree is in an arts subject, but I find myself writing webpages...

I'm definitely more of an arts person deep down, though, and at the end of the day, I see what I do as an art, not as a science, whatever my boss might think. Careers are weird and twisted sometimes - Tim started out training as an architect, went into man-management, then became a pricing manager, then a charity director and went back to buildings with a bit of architecture on the side. Weird. How many semi-trained architects do I know that worked on sausage production lines? Not many..."

---------------

From epi_lj:

"Well, my official job title is, "IT Manager and Graphic Designer," soo... :)

I'm definitely more artistic in personal bent and interest, but my job is almost entirely tech, and my degree is tech. I don't think I have real "hybrid" pedigree though, because I don't sell or make money at any of my arty interests. But outside of work, the last thing I want to do is be very very techy. I'd much rather spend my times doing arty things."

--------------



From braider:

"I'm something of an artsy/tech hybrid. I love doing a multitude of arts and crafts-type things, as well as music - but some of the bits I love best about my job are supplying front-line tech support when someone has trouble with MS Word, or creating an Access database, or (in the midst of creating a db) learning a bit more coding.

Not a big tech geek, certainly. Mostly one by association. However, it's something I genuinely enjoy."

-------------

From trektone:

"I don't feel I'm either, really. Maybe it's all in the labels. I like trying to be creative, but not particularly artistic. While I'm interested in sciences, my banking day jobs (currently in an IT area) never seemed that science-y."

--------------



From folkmew:

"Well for sure arts for me. But comfortable (mostly) with tech.

I'm having great fun exploring watercolors for my "Arts: The Creative Process" class this semester (when you have an "Arts in Education" concentration you get to take all these cool classes!)

I love your illustrations and I hope you will make sure I know of any children's books published with them so I can add them to my children's book collection ok? :)"

--------------

From beige_alert:

"I suppose I might count. I started out studying Computer Engineering, but ended up with a BS in Chemistry. Now I'm something of a biochemist of the instrumental sort, running mass spectrometers and such. Plus some Unix geekery. I also play two musical instruments (flute and guitar), have done just a tiny bit of songwriting, do a little drawing, some photography, and I'm working on that second language (Spanish)."

-------------

From Dave Weingart:

"My degree is in Physics. I spend my days at a computer trying to get programs do do what I want them to do.
I spend my actual TIME daydreaming and singing."

Nov/2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments