SNOW JOB :

Healing the Two-Cultures Split (Glenn Harlan Reynolds, 09/04/2002, Tech Central Station)

Over forty years ago, C.P. Snow warned of an increasing gap between two cultures: the cultures of science, and of the arts. In the intervening years, Snow's observation has become a commonplace, not least because it struck a chord of truth: scientists may have some interest in art and literature, but art and literature (with the exception of science fiction) became increasingly divorced from science.

Indeed, ignorance - and even hostility - regarding science came to be viewed as badges of honor among many in the arts and humanities. And when artists did address technological issues it was usually in the Frankenstein mode: cautionary tales where scientists were the villains - or the trend (begun in the 1970s with anti-nuclear activism by artists like Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt) to oppose technology in the real world.

That seems to be changing now, particularly with the growing popularity of electronic arts and music. [...]

[M]ost recently, biochemist Dr. Linda Long has begun producing CDs in which the haunting sounds are produced by three-dimensional models of DNA mapped to MIDI code. (You can make your own DNA music by downloading software "different from Long's" here, and DNA sequences from here.) Long is one of many musicians who are drawing music itself, not simply the inspiration for music, from science.

Despite all the attention that it got, it may be that the divide between the two cultures was really a technological one. Now that technology has reached the point at which it's an important part of many artistic endeavors, the gap appears to be closing. After over forty years, it's about time.

Mr. Reynolds here seems to fundamentally misapprehend Snow's original "Two Cultures" thesis, though his reading is consistent with the bastardized version that's entered pop culture. Nearly all of "serious" art and literature has long embraced the scientists' world view and most artists have pursued their crafts precisely as if they were sciences. This was true when C.P. Snow wrote--as witness a Picasso or an Alban Berg or a Samuel Beckett--and it is certainly true now, as demonstrated by the examples Mr. Reynolds cites.
Posted by Orrin Judd at September 4, 2002 10:14 PM