My name is Will and I am senior Civil Engineering major at UCLA, graduating in June. I am currently working part time for a Heavy Civil Engineering contractor here in LA and my job is pretty strictly focused on pure engineering, so having some art in my life will be a welcome respite. The relationships between art, science, and technology are relatively new to me, as I have not taken much time to think about their intersections. For this reason, I am interested in the unique content this class presents.

Regarding this unique content, I was interested to learn about this week's subject, as I had never really realized the distinct split that has arisen between art and technology. After viewing the first video presented this week however, the split was easy to see.

Figure 1: UCLA Campus Map (ucla.edu, 2015)

As the above figure shows, there is a distinct geographical split between the arts and sciences on the UCLA campus. The dotted red line is commonly referred to as the divide between "north campus" and "south campus" by students. This clear geographical divide somewhat proves the point of CP Snow that the two cultures have been created by educational institutions.

Figure 2: CP Snow bridging between the two cultures (Scientific American,  2009)

Snow's specific article/speech is interesting in how it brought about the idea of the two cultures when it was really attempting to bring to light other issues. The rich vs. the poor argument that was Snow's intended issue was completely lost amongst the issue of science vs. technology. In his paper, Snow makes it clear that the Scientific Revolution has not only created a divide between art and science, but a large gap between the rich and poor. This is an important issue that was seemingly ignored by the influential readers because it would indict them as the rich class that had used science to get ahead. The idea of a third culture is also interesting and I believe valid, but less so than Snow's original idea. 

Citations

Krauss, Lawrence M. "An Update on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures"" Scientific American. N.p., 17 Aug. 2009. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-update-on-cp-snows-two-cultures/>.

Snow, C. P. "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution." Cambridge University Press (1959): 1-55. The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. Web.

"UCLA Interactive Map." (n.d.): n. pag. UCLA Information. 2015. Web. <http://www.ucla.edu/pdf/ucla-campus-map.pdf>.