The Gaps
THE DIVIDE IN ART AND SCIENCE SUBJECTS IN EDUCATION
Art and Science are not two separate disciplines! All hell breaks loose when such a statement is made. Humans are born creative and curious, and welcomed into this world with lullabies and stories. We immediately engage in communication. It is the first ever step we take and it is a highly creative step. Languages both verbal and non-verbal encompass us but come formal education and we are all made to believe a myth: art and science are two separate disciplines.
The hierarchical structure in formal education where Science disciplines rank above Art disciplines is a devious design. Dismantling and competing to bring Art to the top in ranks or to rearrange the existing hierarchical structure is a rather dangerous attempt at fixing the problem. The problem is the nature of division of disciplines:
It is founded on bias and competition for ethnic, racial, cultural and economic supremacy through academia where, for now, Western particularity is at the centre.
While this predicament challenges universal applicability of any or every other far more efficient knowledge management recourse, it is one that can be reoriented. Accepting the interconnectedness and oneness in the perversely separate disciplines — art and science — and addressing the need for inclusive and equitable learning environments for better learning outcomes will revolutionise sustainability efforts. It, additionally, is also about fostering minds to survey and contemplate outside the scope of learning offered at centres of formal education.
Differences Make All The Difference
What is preventing us from getting ahead or reversing climate change? A precise answer is the culture of specialisation. It is now more than ever before and, in the process of specialisation, we understand our world, its peoples, cultures, beliefs and all things in fragments, in isolation, causing our perception and understanding of the world to be rather Western, biased, and conservative. When sustainability is approached sans Art it is a conservative, an unprogressive, a traditionalist approach — one that is bound to fail.
Foundation Day II: Exploring Practices of Art and Science in Underwater Domain Awareness
O’s second Foundation Day, on 31 March 2023 saw artist Gigi Scaria and Dr. (Cdr) Arnab Das coming together for the first time to explore opportunities outside the conventional structures and perception of knowledge, to foster a deeper connection with our planet.
This is an effort to contemplate and acknowledge the contributions of art and science to humanity while exploring opportunities to share Gigi and Arnab's respective domain knowledge with each other to be able to practice the integration of art and science for better and more meaningful outcomes in sustainability. The differences in their respective backgrounds — Art and Science — would seem stark and glaring to a community that has been conditioned to view these disciplines as unconnected. It is one of O's undertakings to bridge these gaps in knowledge and practice.
LIVELIHOOD ISSUES ARTISTS FACE
Artists are often not motivated by financial rewards. And as unfortunate as that is we know that art is more qualitative than quantitative. Consumption of art, again is tricky, because choice of art is subjective.
Artists do not get a guaranteed income from the state. Unions formed around art and artists often prove to be toothless and ineffective.
Cinema dominates the Indian art world where high-paying jobs are claimed primarily by successful actors. Film writers, directors, musicians too are paid way below the remuneration of highly paid actors. Here too, not all actors are paid well. If the leading male and/or female actors are paid a 7 or 8 or 9 figure salary, the rest of the cast and crew members do not have much or anything at all to take home.
While the creative economy, although an evolving concept, is booming, globally, it is not the case in India. The Policy Circle says: “Today, the creative economy is worth an estimated $985 billion. G20 Insights estimates that by 2030 the creative economy could account for 10% of global GDP, and Deloitte predicts that by 2030, there will be up to a 40% growth in the creative industry.
In the research paper, Creative India: Tapping the Full Potential, Prateek Kukreja, Havishaye Puri, and Dil Bahadur Rahut notes: “According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, India’s creative exports are only one-tenth of those of the People’s Republic of China. To develop the creative economy to realize its full potential, Indian policy makers would like to (i) increase the recognition of Indian culture globally; (ii) facilitate human capital development among its youth; (iii) address the bottlenecks in the intellectual property framework; (iv) improve access to finance; and (v) streamline the process of policy making by establishing one intermediary organisation. India must also leverage its G20 Presidency to put creative economy concretely on the global agenda.”
There is much to be done to tap the full potential of Creative India.
My Story: Sooraj's CrafTuneLight
A guardedness to not harm the environment in any manner as well as to reuse and recycle what remain as pollutants in the environment are prime and ceaseless to my approach. Following in the footsteps of the traditional cottage industries, a medium to reinvent operations, using clay, coir, glass, paper, bamboo and so on seemed plausible in metal art. The resilience associated with metals coupled with the processes metals undergo in the making yield an immense scope of durability to the products. That aside, CrafTuneLight has also become an avenue of expression for the numerous out-of-work artisans around us, who now feel hopeful, having found a new market for their crafts. Bearing in mind the urgency of the climate change crisis, CrafTuneLight is involved in the creation and sale of only sustainable artworks.
NEGLECT OF ART IN SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS
What do we do about climate crises? Look to technology for solutions? Raise funds for research? Call for United Nations’ intervention? Convene meetings at national and international level? Respond to activism and activists? Well, all of these we have tried, and we continue to engage with. What then is the answer? Is there a missing link? How can it be bridged?
In a time where divisive political rhetoric is embraced, bridging the numerous divides that exist in the world we live in is impracticable until the unwittingly divided world of art and science becomes one. This is rather complex a matter and not simplistic as it is suggested. Centuries of conditioning has played its part in concretising the belief that art and science are opposite realms.
And so, the Art and Science worlds function in isolation today whether it is due to how they are positioned in academia, or it is labouring to address global challenges, affecting sustainable development.
We needn’t look far for examples: Even the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations fail to acknowledge the role of art in tackling climate change. It fails to perceive that the present climate change crises were and are driven by science and commerce-led greed, and art, on the other hand, for centuries, for the most part, have spoken the language of conservation, nurture, kindness, beauty, love, compassion, and such, along with, let us not forget, propagating great scientific discoveries.
When the frequently used coinages Mother Earth and Mother Nature are born from art, why then is there a marked bias in attitudes towards art disciplines? This, essentially, stems from the hierarchical structure of disciplines where Science subjects are positioned higher up in ranks followed by Social Sciences, and then Art subjects and Sports at the very bottom.
environMental: 'TOXIC FOAM'
Taking a dip in the sacred rivers of India to wash away one's sins is not a new practice. The occassion of Chhatt Pooja saw devotees taking a dip in River Yamuna amid what appeared like frozen ice or snow. Look closer and it is thick foam on the surface of the water floating in the river. What is alarming is that the foam is TOXIC in nature.
environMental: 'BUTTERFLIES'
To develop a butterfly garden, we must first know what naturally attracts butterflies to a garden. So, we better not get carried away spraying and sprinkling chemicals and pesticides in the garden if we want these beautiful insects to make our garden their home. Allow butterflies to make your garden their habitat.
DECLINING ENTHUSIASTS AND CONNOISEURS
When defining art itself is a slippery slope how can decline or growth of the cultural and/ or creative economy be determined? Then, there is art and high art. What and who defines the parameters to classify them in the said brackets? Economists too doubt their competency to define art.
A lot of it is lost in education. In an effort, primarily Western and colonial in nature, to separate art from science, the perception of art itself is one that is myopic and West-centric. Coupled with this the digital era has brought about a threat of extinction to traditional art forms in marginalised and vulnerable communities world over. In India, for example, many art forms are perceived as scared and ritualistic where castes also play a crucial role.
Most art forms being intangible and ever-changing based on societal evolution and mutation the approach towards conserving, promoting and transmitting needs re-examining. Early childhood education can bring about a massive change in reorienting the approach where parents, grandparents, guardians and teachers could be equipped to cultivate young minds to be able to stimulate thought and consider and reflect on ideas around us.
Oral tradition where knowledge is transmitted from one generation to another, in the form of stories, songs, dances and practices, is declining steadily. Devices have replaced relationships. Intergenerational learning where grandparents and grandchildren bond naturally through native rhymes, folk songs and stories is more or less absent with technology replacing relationships as well as feelings and emotions.
Equipping our children and us to keep an open mind and the acute curiosity with which we arrive in this world will go a long way in shaping the future of our world, because creativity is at its centre.
Our Story: 'Kalaatma'
When we plant a seed, we usually know what plant it is going to become, isn't it? Of course an apple seed cannot become a mango tree! But once in a way, you do come across a mystery seed, that starts off as just another seed, but you really have no idea what it would become. Kalaatma was that seed of an idea for us. Kalaatma brought 4 storytellers, Ramya Srinidhi, Lavanya Prasad, Meera Venkatesan and Anagha Prasad together, inviting us to pour our heart into it.
An Inter-generational Tea Party
Do you remember the Fab Four (The Beatles) singing blithely, “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?”
Well, ‘84’ is the new ‘64’ and I’m sure there are many in that age-group who voice these doubts, silently or otherwise. Insecurity is an integral component of the senior citizen’s psyche, more so when they cannot live independently and have to move to a facility.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC BIASES AND INJUSTICE
When it comes to exploring and understanding the patterns of social inequality in arts and cultural participation in India, it is imbued with complexities. Caste being one of the many complications, it has played a role in determining the rights to access anything, including the most basic things such as food, water and shelter.
The politics of caste with respect to food and water still run deep in independent India, even within the government, legislators and controllers. Elections are won and lost on this politics. Added to this are the numerous other biases: gender, age, colour, religious, technological etc. Art amid this is a fascinating spectrum. But numerous art forms and artists are struggling to make ends meet.
In India, for example, many art forms are perceived as scared and ritualistic where castes and religions play a crucial role. Many performing art forms that are becoming obscure were typically performed in temple-premises, homes, as private events, within caste groups etc. Efforts to bring a number of these art forms to the public have not been effective enough to make a difference, primarily because a holistic approach hasn’t been adopted where the State is actively involved with policies to promote and integrate these art forms into mainstream education and community.
Another example is the often unintelligible performance text. With only 0.00198 percentage of Sanskrit speakers in the country and a few hundreds more who would have beginner to medium-level understanding of the language the chances of such art forms flourishing is rather reduced.
Further, other traditional art forms such as paintings, weaving, pottery, metallurgy and other crafts works haven't been protected or conserved other than recognising some of these as Geographical Indications (GI).
To make matters worse, the formal education system in India treats most art disciplines as extra-curricular. The plight of school education in India is unfortunate. Although India became one of the 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child on 1 April 2010, it still is way behind in making that a reality with literacy rates under 75%, according to 2011 census.
However, the reality is dark. With private education centres taking over government schools are still playing catch up with them left way behind. According to UNESCO, the children of the over 100 crore population of Independent India are still deprived of quality education and the majority of our inhabitants have little access to proper healthcare facilities.
Macaulyism has perpetuated negative stereotypes in the country by teaching India to discard, dislike and deride its own knowledge and wisdom. This very strategy that divided India for the British Raj’s advantage is perpetuated today too. Further, the approach to decolonise the curriculum is misplaced, which only hastens the sectarian division of India, where the most affected are the poor of India.
DISCREDITING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
Colonisation, generational amnesia and technological evolution have and are rapidly eroding cultural, regional and indigenous knowledge systems which promoted sustainable practices. With respect to world oral history and oral tradition, studies overtime conclusively suggest that Language, be it any, contain an accumulated body of knowledge, including about geography, zoology, mathematics, navigation, astronomy, pharmacology, botany, meteorology and more.
This being the case, the indigenous people and their languages too are becoming scarce and extinct. Climate scientists have for centuries disregarded indigenous knowledge and wisdom as pseudoscience.
Indigenous knowledge is crucial in mitigating the effects of climate change. United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, is relevant if and only if it signifies rethinking and reorienting sustainable practices by including and acknowledging sustainable practices with art as an essential component of a broad and balanced plan towards sustainable development. Kaitylin J. Rathwell and Derek Armitage’s research highlight “six underlying mechanisms through which art and artistic processes mediate knowledge system bridging.”
Although our relationship with nature and the natural world dates back to prehistoric times our knowledge repertoire appears to be eroding at a rapid pace, and as a result knowledge development process is falling into a uniformity trap where “information” is increasingly replacing intergenerational, intragenerational and transgenerational experiences and knowledge. Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable climate solutions.
Indigenous knowledge exists amid us in oral literary form, folk art forms such as songs, dance, craft and so on but is often dismissed by mainstream scientists as primitive superstition and myth and seldom recognised as knowledge:
• India’s Chipko Andolan of the 1970s was one of the first successful ecological movements in the world. It was led by the indigenous people of Uttarakhand, mainly women.
• A study that explored the history of the Amazon Rainforest found that indigenous people “coexisted with, and helped maintain, large expanses of relatively unmodified forest” for millennia … “Some propose that human influences played strong roles in the enrichment of ‘hyperdominant’ trees”29 that now dominate the forest were planted by prehistoric human inhabitants.
• A more recent example is the unfortunate and tragic European colonisation of Americas which witnessed systemic destruction of indigenous knowledge systems, genocide, and abuse.