On Context, Imagination, and STEM vs. ART

John Seely Brown's insights on context, imagination, and the importance of art in education.

Go read this whole interview with John Seely Brown. It's awesome. Here's a few of my favorite bits.

On content versus content:

Remember that image of the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down? Well, the photo was actually cropped. Those were Americans pulling the statue down, not Iraqis. But the cropped photo reinforced this notion that the Iraqis loved us. It reshaped context. Milennials are much better at understanding that context shapes content. They play with this all the time when they remix something. It’s actually an ideal property for a 21st century citizen to have.

That's as good an explanation of what McLuhan meant by the medium is the message as I've read.

On creativity versus imagination:

The real key is being able to imagine a new world. Once I imagine something new, then answering how to get from here to there involves steps of creativity. So I can be creative in solving today’s problems, but if I can’t imagine something new, than I’m stuck in the current situation.

I really like that distinction. Imagination is what drives vision, creativity is what drives execution. Both have huge amounts of value, but they're different things.

On the dangers of a STEM-only world:

Right. That’s what we should be talking about. That’s one of the reasons I think what’s happening in STEM education is a tragedy. Art enables us to see the world in different ways. I’m riveted by how Picasso saw the world. How does being able to imagine and see things differently work hand-in-hand? Art education, and probably music too, are more important than most things we teach. Being great at math is not that critical for science, but being great at imagination and curiosity is critical. Yet how are we training tomorrow’s scientists? By boring the hell out of them in formulaic mathematics—and don’t forget I am trained as a theoretical mathematician.

Not to talk about McLuhan too much, but he also deeply believed in the value of art and artists as the visionaries for society. I think there's obviously a lot of room here and the reality of the focus on STEM is that we have so far to go that it's not like we're going to wake up in a world where people only learn math and science. But I think the point is that the really interesting thoughts that come along are the ones that combine, not shockingly, the arts and sciences.

Again, just go read the whole interview. It's great.