Week 1 : Two Cultures

Hi everyone! My name is Arianne De Leon and I am a fourth year Sociology student. I thought it was interesting to think about the questions that professor Vesna proposed in the two cultures intro lecture. After taking some time to reflect on these questions and what essentially created these unnatural conditions of the separation between art and science, two of the strongest mediums and cultural spectors in society, I realized that from a young age there was a strong distinction in the two different paths. The first time I had to choose between the arts and science was in grade school and in my childhood when there would be separate classes where my passions and interests could be explored. For example, I played the violin from grade school to high school and always felt a passion for it, however the sciences was always prioritized in my studies in which my parents and people around me also widely accepted as truth. 

Fast forward, later in life I had the opportunity to choose my academic path again in which I were to pursue my education and career in the arts sciences. In complete honestly, although I have always been more artistically inclined towards the arts in my studies and personal hobbies, I decided to go into the social sciences because it was a more stable decision to my family and in my community. As a social science student I enjoy learning about the science behind the humanities and social behavior, however I also plan on pursuing a career in a field that combines the arts and social science behavior in the music industry. Although the two cultures of science and arts have unnaturally separated in society, I continue to aspire to find a balance in my life between the two as I think both are vital to our economies and institutions. 

I was fascinated by the way that the two cultures were explained in the RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms video. My perspective on the relationships between education and globalization broadened after watching this video in which I began to think about the cultural spectors and architecture, such as the different styles of architecture of the buildings at UCLA depending on which campus you are on. It was interesting to think about the ways in which the structures of education reflect our disciplines and business endeavors. These structures also have the power to shift paradigms of people and the way we understand around ourself. In Changing Education paradigms, I learned about how we think about educating our children in efforts to pass down the cultural genes of our communities, while also participating in globalization. This video explains the difference between the two cultures well in which the: arts address the idea of aesthetic experience while science, in terms of the medicalization of adhd shuts off your senses and you deaden yourself to what is happening around you. One of the most important things that I can continue to think about in my own academic journey and in my reality is the last quote said in the Changing Education Paradigms video in which they states, "its about the habitats of our institutions and the habits that they occupy".