The Physical and Metaphorical Divide
C.P Snow's and Victoria Vesna's perspectives resemble that of neutral observers watching the egregious separation between the arts and sciences from a distance. Though they act as neutral parties, they are not detached from the divide between these two apparent worlds. C.P. navigated the two worlds in his profession, learning to observe the faults of each party, including their lack of knowledge about each other (Snow). Like the rest of us, Vesna has no choice but to live in the digital age. In this world, the line separating the arts and sciences becomes blurred through digital media (Vesna).
At UCLA, the separation between the arts and sciences is bound by physical distance. The North Campus arts culture is on one side of campus and the South Campus science culture on the other. The grass lawn near Tongva steps in North Campus bounds demonstrates a meditative rest spot, leaning into the stereotypes of North Campus majors' affinity for doing nothing (Hedblom et al.). However, South Campus spaces lack many grass spaces. The green spaces remain typically unoccupied, almost as if rest is stereotypically frivolous for South Campus majors.
The landscape and design of the UCLA campus illustrated how physical boundaries could uphold generalizations within academia (Sedlock). It reduces the arts and sciences majors to a set of characteristics that have nothing to do with the actual characteristics of the individuals (Vesna). Instead, these characteristics are bound by misguided assumptions about what an arts or STEM major should or should not be . These new ideas and perspectives encourage me to peer through the divisions I navigate in my day-to-day life to better understand the individual rather than the labels assigned to them. In the words of cultural commentator Ayishat Akanbi, "The fixation with your identity limits your identity,” so I shouldn't find myself so bound by the labels that I know do not define me or my worth.
Works Cited
Akanbi, Ayishat. “The Identity Crises.” Instagram, 26 Jul. 2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/CDHACP7lQsN/?utm_medium=copy_link.
Alisa, Lisa. “Creative Concept of the Human Brain.” Vector Illustration. Shutterstock. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/left-right-human-brain-concept-textured-1293398059
Daily Bruin. “A Photograph of Tongva Steps.” Photograph. Daily Bruin. 7 Aug. 2020, https://dailybruin.com/2020/08/07/usac-unanimously-passes-resolution-in-support-of-renaming-janss-steps-to-tongva-steps.
Hedblom, et al. “Reduction of Physiological Stress by Urban Green Space in a Multisensory Virtual Experiment.” Scientific Reports, vol. 9, no. 1, July 2019, pp. 1–11, doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46099-7.
Sedlock, Julia, and Sean Lally. “Challenging the Physical and Disciplinary Boundaries.” MAS CONTEXT, 11 Mar. 2013, https://www.mascontext.com/issues/17-boundary-spring-13/challenging-the-physical-and-disciplinary-boundaries/.
Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. OUP, 2013.
Tak, Nitya, and Noah Danesh. “North and South Campus, UCLA.” Drawing. Daily Bruin. 2021, https://prime.dailybruin.com/justinnorth&southcampus.
Vesna, Victoria, “Lecture Part II: Two Cultures.” Youtube, Mar. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUr4xxZ_0gw&t=6s.
Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, The MIT Press, 2001, pp. 121–25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577014.
It's very interesting to me that you brought up the difference in the availability of green spaces between the two sub-campuses on UCLA. Now that I think about it, the lack of green space on south campus expresses the deep embedded behaviors that emerge from capitalism - cortisol induced stress, hyper-work culture, and narrow focus on blitzing technological progress. There is little space to breathe, slow down, and zone-out which in this culture is characterized the same as being lazy and inefficient. As the Italians say, "Dolce Far Niente," there is a sweetness in doing nothing and this sweetness is missing on on other end of our campus.
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