Blending Art & Science To Create More Effective Ideas - Change This

“Blending art and science is about collaborating in ideas generation: the inter-relationship is critical, you can’t have one thing without the other. A bunch of code or data is just a bunch of numbers without the art.

Science can enable us to be more creative, and creativity allows us to get the most out of our data. But consider ‘the multiplier effect’. If either the data or creative are bad, the idea will fail. It’s not one or the other that we need, it’s both. It’s not science plus art equals results, it’s more science times art, so a zero for either means failure.

That is where the interesting ideas are - at that intersection. The future is all about ideas connecting. Those who can bridge art and science will be in demand, will be powerful.

So if our ideas are going to change hearts and minds, let’s blend them together.”

Download this great piece from Change This and James Trezona.

Innovation is born when art meets science | John Maeda, Rhode Island School of Design | The Observer

The technology and design guru argues that for invention to occur, scientists must embrace the art world John Maeda at the Rhode Island School of Design John Maeda at the Rhode Island School of Design Photograph: David O'Connor Photography A graphic designer and computer scientist, known for his work on the online computer game Second Life, as well as the author of bestselling self-help book The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda has made great use of dual educations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and art school. Drawing from his experiences in these two disciplines, the 44-year-old has come to believe that too stark a distinction is drawn between science and the arts

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Study of artists' brain injuries hints at roots of creativity - Paul Jablow

In 1997, when she was 44, a massive stroke cost painter Katherine Sherwood the permanent use of her right hand. Today, the Bay Area artist is painting with her left hand, her career more successful than ever. Back in 1980, an aneurysm from a previously undiagnosed brain abnormality required surgery that completely wiped out noted jazz guitarist Pat Martino's musical memory. Surgeons told him he had been two hours away from death, put him to sleep, and removed 60 percent of his left temporal lobe. Playing with a computer and listening to his old recordings, Martino, who lives in South Philadelphia, taught himself to play again and has made more than a dozen albums. In 2004 he won the Downbeat magazine readers poll as "Guitarist of the Year."

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If Design Thinking Can Power Up Companies, How About "Art"? - Idris Mootee

If "Design Thinking" Can Power Up Companies, How About "Art"? "Art" Should Not Be Reduced To Something Just For Display. "Art" Is The Soul Of Design. L1010301 This is the view from my temporary office. I have received a lot of great feedback from my last post and I guess it is a popular subject. And there are many different point-of-views out there. I want to continue on the subject and this was written on my 18 hour transpacific flight while eating a stack of home made French toast because I can’t stand airline food. Executives are increasingly convinced that businesses are not merely offering functional devices or products to help customers to get their jobs done, but also visual imagery, customer experiences, user identity and social connectiveness. This new design consciousness is a result of many factors including the commodization of quality manufacturing, proliferation of channels, oversaturation of brands and products and rapidly changing customer expectations. Plus a heightened demand for better aesthetic experience and usability given the increasingly complex interfaces for technology products. Design has (and should) become a critical element within the strategic tool kit for new product development. But it can be useful as part of the business strategy tool kit to create growth.

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Dawkins - How Science is An Art

While many, including Darwin himself, have misunderstood the work of a scientist as the dull grinding of facts and theories, Richard Dawkins sees the career as a colorful and incredibly creative enterprise—akin, in many ways, to the highest poetry and most imaginative art.