SCI-ART LAB

Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication

Science is universal in nature where as art has roots in and dependent on the culture it originates from for its evolution. So art was varied from place to place and culture to culture earlier. But globalization is changing all this variation in art and making it look like a stunted pigmy these days.

Everywhere in the World I see the same kind of creative works these days! I
wondered several times why this thing is happening. Because everybody
wants to sell their works & become famous. So they follow famous
creative people & their trends. They stop thinking about new trends.
This kills innovation. Creativity suffers as a result. Don't agree?
Here is the proof from science: 

In his book predictably irrational, author Dan Ariely makes the case that globalization inhibits creativity
and ultimately reduces innovation. His idea is that the concept of ‘one
large market’ reduces the diversity of ideas and approaches to the
problems of today.

To make his point, he uses a passage from The Lost World by Michael Crichton in which the chaos-theory scientist character named Malcolm goes on a pessimistic rant against one of the offshoots of
globalization – cyberspace. Malcolm’s point is that in a world where
everyone is connected, creativity, innovation and ultimately, evolution
will suffer.

The idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. Every biologist knows that small groups in isolation evolve fastest. You put a thousand birds on a ocean island, and they’ll evolve very fast.
You put ten thousand on a big continent, and their evolution slows down.
Now, for our own species, evolution occurs mostly through our behavior.
We innovate new behavior to adapt. And everyone on earth knows that
innovation only occurs in small groups. Put three people on a committee
and they may get something done. Ten people, and it gets harder. Thirty
people, and nothing happens. Thirty million, it becomes impossible.
That’s the effect of mass media–it keeps anything from happening. Mass
media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same–Bangkok or Tokyo
or London: there’s a McDonald’s on one corner, a Benetton on another, a
Gap across the road. Regional differences vanish. All differences
vanish. In a mass-media world, there’s less of everything except top ten
books, records, movies and ideas. People worry about losing species
diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity–our
most necessary resource? That’s disappearing faster than trees. But we
haven’t figured that out, so now we’re planning to put five billion
people together in cyberspace. And it’ll freeze the entire species.
Everything will stop dead in it’s tracks. Everyone will think the same
thing at the same time. Global uniformity…


Yes, I fully agree with the author Dan Ariely.  Benefits from Internet & Globalization? - Yes. Cultural Evolution? -No!

Go to any art website & observe the trends in creativity.

Only a hand full of people have the courage to go against the tide. Only these people can innovate & become trend setters. Others are just  trend followers. Majority of the people belong to this second
group. In the Cyberspace you assume a global identity & your
cultural identity is lost. The culture you are born into becomes
secondary & its influence on your creativity gets affected. Cultural
differences - which are very essential for creative evolution - get
diminished.   Doesn't "true creativity" suffer in these circumstances?

What do you think? Please let me know.

(Effects of globalization on creative  evolution is the main topic here. Not creativity or benefits of cyber space.

And now proof from various parts of the globe:

Creative Evolution: A theory similar to that of biological evolution, which argues that human creativity changes gradually throughout time, as a
result of a number of cultural processes.
Culture is an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that
depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
Sorry, I don't see "evolution in creativity". Yes, there is evolution in marketing, evolution in finding new ways to show your art to the world, evolution in following trends created by some people, evolution in new media & technological usage. I want to see true creative evolution of art in all this. This happens only when artists from different parts of the world can find new trends based on true cultural basis in which they are embedded. Not by following a single global culture!

One of the  most important things that enriches culture is variety of thoughts! Are you thinking your own thoughts? Or are you, like too many people these days, blindly and unconsciously seeing the world through the beliefs, convictions, and assertions of others?


You might not know this: In India - for that matter in several parts of the world - in which there was a rich cultural diversity earlier, most of the art forms are becoming extinct. Yes, earlier we had several types of folk music, puppetry, some sort musical story telling on stage - we call it "Burra Katha" & "Hari Katha", rural painting forms, regional painting art works on clothes - all these forms of art are disappearing! Why? Because nobody is encouraging them & nobody is following them because they don't have a market. New globalized market which wants to follow only certain trends doesn't encourage these things. As people who are creative in these art forms cannot earn their livelihood through these they are discarding them & following pop music or painting that the global market wants! And it is happening all over the world. Most of the art forms that belong to different cultures are becoming extinct & this is a fact! I have seen with my own eyes all these things disappearing! There are lots & lots of complaints coming from all parts of the world. I have read several reports myself. Here we are not only talking about individual's creativity levels but also on global creative terms! The world has rich cultural heritage. Most of it is on the brink of extinction.  I am sure our creativity is not limited to fine arts. )

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I am not so sure you can attribute lack of uniqueness to collaboration in cyberspace. There are many more factors involved including the aforementioned theiving of ideas and monetary survival. Ida Outhwaite was an Austrailian children's book illustrator. Her parents chose not to send her to art school. They felt her own unique style would develop better if she was not influenced by other artists. She illustrated the books her sister Anna wrote. Some said that Anna wrote the stories to illustrate Ida's drawings. They made a fabulous pair. The illustrations are unique for the time period. They are,however not void of the influence of nature around them. Most, but not all, depend on the references of our environment, natural or man made. Even science fiction and fantasy creatures show eyes, ears and mouth of some kind. I don't think it's possible to run out of ideas but as long as shows are judged and and artists success is measured in economic terms they will gravitate to ideas that sell either the judges or to the client. If John Q Public is judging he'll choose craftsmanship and realism and John is the one paying for the art.

Thank you Minnie for posting your views. WoW! What a pleasant surprise? It has been a long time since I heard from you. Hello, how are you? How is your work going?

I'm fine. I get your emails and read some of the discussions. I'm glad to see you are still fostering great ideas and discussions online. How are you? Here is a favorite quote that I enjoy a giggle over sometimes "In matters controversial my perception is mighty fine, I always see both sides of things--the one that's wrong AND MINE." You have a lovely day.

I am fine, thank you, Minnie. Looks like old days came back again with you and Paz active again on Ning networks. I am not visiting other Ning networks because of lack of time.

Your quote really made me laugh. We have art, science and literature discussions going on all through 365 days in a year here. But these days my science discussions are becoming more popular than art ones.

Have a great day!

Hi!, Dr. Krishna & Minnie!,nice to share something with you again!.I still believe art shouldn`t be influenced with fashion flows, or money. If you want to be a good shoemaker,learn what a shoe is about and create your own ones.
The same for other cathegories.It`s need to make an effort to be unique, only unique will survive. Thanks.

Thank you , Paz, for returning back. We have evolved into an unique network with the combination of  science, art and literature. These three subjects attract all kinds of people.

the thing is we are not all scientist, sometimes we get lost!, 
Internet`s got so much information is hard to follow part of it!
Artists need a good deal of silence & privacy. Information spoils it.
At least happens to me!!!, My salutations, my friend

Paz I think about your direct answers sometimes. For me I work best in quiet solitude also but I think many art forms, especially literature and science I would think, thrive on discussions with colleagues. What comes to mind is the famous literary bar/club that CS Lewis frequented as he wrote The Chronicles if Narnia. I think their friendly discussions contributed to the uniqueness of the stories. The internet is a forum for a lot of things but few places offer real interaction with others of a like minded profession. I think this site is unique in that respect in that Dr Challa introduces interesting and provoking ideas to banter about. Discussions like that can often stimulate divergent thinking leading to fresh ideas. It's nice to hear from you both. Sometimes I get lost too, there is so much information out there. The drive to copy popular ideas in order to generate money has always been a waster of intellectual creativity no matter what the field. I do agree on that one. What does make a person dream of new things? It's sad to hear that some genres of folk art are fading but I think they always do, not sure it's globalization that's causing it though. There may be many other factors involved. Public appetite wanes for some things for various reasons. I wonder sometimes if in the future no one will draw by hand or use concrete materials to create art. There are many lost arts throughout history.

Dear Minnie: I am not a writer or a scientist. They possibly need to discuss matters and share knowledge, and they are very happy about it because is useful. I`m dedicated to architecture, sculptures , handcrafts & paintings,so, imagine is not fear to follow any of the trillion ways the world invites to follow.Yes I get information about new materials, prices, and try some of them, to see if I find an easiest & cheapeast & strongest way to make my projects real.Most materials found lately don`t convince me, although have to go deeper into heavy duty plastics, because there`s an old project never finished that hardly needs it!.To be honest, I`m not against any people`s behaviour, rather follow my instinct.Cheers!

Paz, I'm most familiar with mathematicians. The great progress of mathematics has depended to a great extent on the posing of questions, theorizing the answers and then proving the solutions. Once a worthy challenge is out there, sometimes many years may pass before someone comes up with the proof. In Any event both the process of posing the question and supplying the proof are extremely creative. Mathematics has been a long process of imagination. It, however has not been the product of only one person's imagination but has developed into a growing language upon which many other things depend--even your work depends on it. It's impossible in this world to do or create anything that is not benefited in some way from the efforts of others. Collaboration in cyberspace, though it appears to be stunting the growth of areas of culture, is not our enemy. Greed and dishonesty and the failure to teach our fellow men to appreciate diversity and refined craftsmanship will destroy the vitality of refreshing thought. The advent of wide scale social networking is filling the need on some level that people have to gather and share experiences. The tools are in the hands of individuals to 'star' in their own production, to have followers that' 'like' their productions and to gain 'viral' attention. This need to be noticed by others is, like it or not', is a fundamental food for our ego. It's unfortunate that it's taking so much time that people are failing to appreciate some of the older forums for self expression. It's Has become a stage full of actors with no audience. Where is the audience? Texting. Why aren't the children playing? They are gaming on digital devices. I don't know if it's good or bad, it's just changed. And for the most part the tool that has fueled the change has been provided by mathematics in a collaborative effort.

Whilst I agree that an interconnected world has a huge impact on evolution more specifically cultural evolution. All over the world we have thousands of art form whether it is music or painting or dance. Each evolved independently and so beautifully. An interconnected world surely hamper diversity. We can already see that the music and dance globally very uniform. There is not much of a difference between a South Korean song or a Bollywood song or a English pop music. They blend become more of the same.

If you notice I have used words like impact or hamper instead of killed or destroyed. I believe that an interconnected world can hamper or impact evolution but it cannot stop or kill it.

In one of the Jurassic Park movie (incidentally based on Crichton novel - The Lost World), one of the principal character says - "life finds a way".

I am sure life will find a way to evolve despite the interconnectedness. I can already see this with respect to cultural evolution. You must check the underground music scene, independent film makers, few underground art forms (Street graffitis) these are for me a clear proof life indeed finds a way. 

I am sure interconnectedness is not the only challenge life ( or evolution) faced.  Life started its journey from a hydrothermal vent ( there is a strong evidence to prove that but still open to challenges) to what it is now. I am sure it will find a way around this interconnected world and evolve as a better and more scientific and more artistic... 

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