Art vs. Science???

Last weekend, Nadia and I went to the Symposium "Where do we go from here?", to celebrate the launch of the Brussels Platform for the Arts. With all the educational reforms going around the European Union, Belgium decided that it was time for an academic Doctorate in the Arts.

For some people involved in the event, academics = science, and they defended that they had nothing to do with each other, arguing that science is cold and methodical, and that it suffocates creativity. Other people, such as Jean Paul Van Bendegem (well, actually the ones who have a hands-on experience with science), defended that there are more things in common than differences between the arts and sciences.

I think that both need creativity and hard work. Nobody in science really follows the scientific method: you need inspiration to explore new avenues and ideas. And art is not only about liberating the spirit: without hard work, you won't do anything relevant.

Sciences, not even the hardest ones, are purely objective, nor arts are purely subjective... all of them are contextual!

I think that doing research in arts does not need to follow scientific approaches, and still be academic. You just need a group of experts judging whether a student has proven herself/himself worthy of obtaining a doctorate degree. The precise rules in which this will happen are still to be determined, but I think the program has lots of potential.

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