ON TOPIC
Science as the
Subject of Art
By Erik P Hoel
Why should art concern itself with science?
Why not just let science pass by unattended to,
unremarked upon, why not let science toil in
its own halls under its own mechanistic means?
Why attempt to engage the Titan that moves
past you in the dark? There is no doubt that
culture is becoming more scientific, not in its
methodology, but in its daily concerns, topics,
metaphors, standards of truth. By this I am
referring not to science as what is practiced by
scientists, but rather, I mean science in the dayto-day basis of an educated human being’s life.
What science is on such a day-to-day basis
is not the technology that permeates our society — that is always treated in accordance
with Clarke’s third law anyways. When person A needs help from person B in setting up
a Wi-Fi, or when person C stands atop their
broken-down car to get service, there is no way
in which this is scientific. The way we experience
science is not in this manner. Rather, science is
a premier binding mythos of the current age,
pervading the semantic and functional structure of everyd