• Question: Do you find any use for your art in your job?

    Asked by anon-253904 to Wei on 11 May 2020.
    • Photo: Wei Xun

      Wei Xun answered on 11 May 2020:

      Hi!

      Art has helped me a lot to solve really difficult scientific problems, especially when I get stuck (and that is all the time!).

      It doesn’t seem like it but even the act of doing a simple drawing is a collection of sophisticated processes that happens. I also find many parallels between art and science, eg when you draw, you are trying to “abstract” ie, somehow translate a mass of 3D sensory information from the world around to into a 2D representation of reality, which needs to be good enough to convey what you are experiencing, but not so complicated so that it ends up being confusing and useless. That is a fundamental basis of science that get taken for granted sometimes.

      Also I think, by articulating your thoughts into something real (on paper, canvas or in sculpture) it’s really good exercise in abstract thinking and art can be very disciplined and quite scientific in its approach.

      For me, both good art and good science is about being creative, intuitive and innovative. You will have many amazing and diverse experiences in your lifetime that is almost unimaginable right now, having diversity and flexibility in your thinking will be a big benefit.

      All the best (here is the link for the BASC module structure https://www.ucl.ac.uk/basc/current/core)!

Comments

  • Photo: Beth

    Beth commented on :

    Hi, you can absolutely use art in science. I personally believe they go hand in hand. Like Wei Xun, I also found that art helped me solve difficult problems and it really helped me understand for complex cell signalling pathways for exams. I often draw out cell signalling pathways to help me understand specific aspects of the pathways, and I’ve moved to do this digitally for publishing work. I think science is creative and you can apply creativity to science, you can be both arty and sciency!