The Great Divide

In no other industry is the divide more apparent or obvious yet so closely linked and interdependant. What am I talking about? Why quite simply the gap between the technical and the creative; the technologist and the artist.

I recently attended a forum on animation and interactive technology. The discussions ranged from topics like pipeline & production design to network and storage implementations. The sessions threw light on high-performance computing, rendering, file systems, low-cost hybrid solutions. A glimpse of future trends was showcased in the form of an industry and technology road map. Examples of how technology was being innovatively used in the country were highlighted.

The subtle undercurrents spoke of how creative artists are stubborn and inflexible when it comes to following pipeline processes and conventions citing their need to be abstract and imaginative. The general attitude that the creative artist; a glorified icon of the animation industry is largely responsible for the growth of the industry isn’t helping any. Ask any bright eyed student of the opportunities he sees in the animation industry today and chances are you will not hear any technical job profiles. The artist maintains that the idea is paramount and his creative vision needs the freedom to be abstract and obscure.

I maintain that creativity in education should be treated with the same status as literacy. However I would define creativity as having original ideas that add value. So when technologists are grappling with a pipeline bottleneck or inefficient networks to innovatively improve production they are in fact being creative. Writing scripts that simplify and streamline creative processes is a technical process yet is entirely guided by an artistic vision. Creativity is problem solving at the core. Innovation, design, communications, invention, all disciplines depend on both the technologist and artist mindsets working in concert to solve the problem. Technologists and artists need each other. Projects grow exactly because of the combination of the two. They work in different ways and with different methods but ultimately they complement each other. Ideas need implementation to accomplish anything real.

We need to remind ourselves of this because so much of our schooling, training, research and career movement is one-sided, naturally and unnaturally following a specializing/narrowing path. Lifting our heads to look around from time to time can be very refreshing and valuable. Innovation comes from bridging languages, disciplines and cultures.

Many people are technologists and artists at the same time. It's not always an either-or thing. I question the need to divide people into these binary categories. Sure some people tend to be one or the other, but others try to carve out a niche in which they can be both at the same time. Part of the creative process is to think both ways simultaneously - to alternate frequently, minute to minute. Making this separation implies that professionals should choose one or the other as a career path. Perhaps we should simply be conscious of the fact that most of our colleagues tend one way or the other, but we should try to develop both strengths together and avoid going only one way or the other.

Let us pay homage to the man of "both" worlds. Leonardo da Vinci. He found a plane of thought that encompassed both the world of art along with the world of the sciences. Leonardo was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, inventor, and scientist. He is most likely the epitome of the Renaissance man who dared to bridge the great divide.