Just returned moist (rain) from a symposium,
‘Reconnecting Art & Science.’ Interesting speakers from both sides of the junction, bone
and dementia specialists, care workers and artist. I think the aim was to
combine the two to create public interest. I suggest a TV series dramatising
the case studies of various murders caused by scientific cover-ups. Anyway at
the end a discussion about the fruitless task of trying to prove to government
and funders that art in all its forms is beneficial to the health of
individuals. They don’t appear to have the hearing for it. It then seemed to me
art and science are already reasonably well connected and the faculty in need
of reconnection are the administrators. The introductory speaker, as if to
prove my point replied, “but we need to budget.” Administrators unlike artists
and scientist are the overlookers tasked to keep control. They don’t function
with the innate curiosity of artist and scientists, they’re required to create a
decision for the future in the present, i.e. they process in a sense
retrospectively as the present always comes before the future. They must then
have an innate fear that the future when it occurs may hold them to account.
One looks to the future for possibilities the other with a certain insecurity.
Governments, funders and administrators therefore are hesitant of too much
change lest it prove them wrong. Whilst I accept the difficulty of their role
if their fear predominates it militates against progress. I suggest this is the
reason for their lack of support for the benefits of art to the health of
individuals. If the benefits can’t be guaranteed in the present they can’t be
formulated as part of the future. This is why I suggest there is a far greater
need for administrators to reconnect with the disciplines of art and science.
The future will invariably be a strange place; it’s the essence of evolution,
and our administrators need to reconnect with the flavour of exploration and
curiosity that permeate the arts and sciences and not lead with the dead hand
of lagging behind. A good time to re-watch, “24 Hour Party People”.
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