Re: [APML] Re: Science in Astrophotos?

["Jim Vineyard" <sky4me@msn.com>]

A Long one....

Oke dokie, here I go....
  I think weather astrophotography can be viewed as Science or an Art
depends on the motivations of the producer of it.
  I cannot accept Science as merely a sub-category of Art.  I see Science
and Art as definitely separate, ultimately as separate as the two
hemispheres of the human brain.  We are creatures of duality.  And recent
investigations into actual brain functioning support this.
  If this idea is a new one to you then realize the human brain actually
does have two independently functioning hemispheres.  This has been
established in the mainstream through the study of persons who have had
their corpus callosum (connective tissue) severed between their two
hemispheres either through accident or surgery (to relieve certain profound
types of brain dysfunction).  The idea that we actually consist of two
separately functioning "brains" is even being taught in some religiously
based parochial schools these days.
  This is not new to humanity and has been expressed throughout our entire
history.  It's no accident the Chinese idea of Ying and Yang, pragmatism vs.
passions, yes or no, the rule of law vs. unbridled freedom, a digital view
of the world, all make sense within the human mind.  Everything about the
human physical structure is symmetry.
  I'm not familiar with universities all around the globe but I can say the
ones I've seen are organized along the lines of Colleges of Natural and
Physical Sciences, and Colleges of Arts and Humanities.  Each focusing on
"separate" types of human cognitive endeavors.  I think even the rub of
distaste between Religion and Science, Creation and Evolution, Artists and
Scientists, all of which being seen as mutually exclusive, is actually at
the root just expressions of the physical duality of our brains.
  It is a mistake to think "the other half" has nothing to offer of quality
or value.  Likewise, most can readily recognize an individual practicing a
single-sided extreme of any of these dualities and label them as
"unbalanced", artsy-fartsy, a total nerd or dwebe.
  I left the Sciences behind (at the end of a most successful quarter,
important to the long term ego you know) and crossed into the "other world"
while still studying at a university.
  Personally, I left the Science side of things because I'd become aware
that the type of Science I was studying was so focused that it was excluding
all my other interests, and profoundly altering my human relationships.  The
competitiveness was so strong that you could actually see some colleagues
becoming unbalanced in their intellectual abilities and altered attitudes.
I even think you could often see it in their eyes, some of them, and even
watched it happen, the right eye being bright clear and focused (physically
connected to the left hemisphere), the left dulled (connected to the right),
due to the intense "left brain" focus at the very heart of the Physical
Sciences.  Mind you, this didn't seem happen to everyone, but probably only
those who shouldn't have been there to begin with, not really inherently
having what it takes, most being filtered out, unless they had some wholly
un-rational drive to continue.  The truly capable virtuosos at it never
seemed to exhibit this.
  Is astrophotography Science or Art?  No wonder we are struggling with the
question.  I think it depends on what your motivations are.  Did you set out
to do some Science in your mind, or did you set out to make some beautiful
photographs.  Or, once you've applied all the Science that goes into
astrophotography, do you then sit back simply to enjoy the result, if this
is the case then I think your motivation is artistic weather you realize it
or not.  Or, after applying all the Science of obtaining it, do you look for
scientific value, or technical merit, then clearly this is a scientific
motivation for the pursuit.
  If you're a "balanced" individual the answer may not be so clear, and the
question may be a bit like chasing your own tail for a "concise" scientific
answer if you tend to be generally left-brain functional (as most of us here
are).
  For our purposes, I think the answer is most often that the motivation is
actually right-brain artistic enjoyment since we are doing it because we
"enjoy it", one of  the actual definitions of the word "amateur".
  Just as most colleges and universities which offer courses in Photography
of any sort consider it to be in the "Fine Arts" category and teach it as
being so.  We too, in the end are, even in some cases un-knowingly,
participating in an Art-form.  Weather it is "Fine" art is a question of
your own subjective interpretation, and personal value you place on any
particular exhibit of the result.
  For those who are generally offended by the term "art" applied to their
work and find the term somewhat distasteful, consider that "Art" is not
necessarily a slighting term in any sense actually.
  For a bit of an example would you rather be proficient in the Science of
love-making, or the Art of it?  If you had to specialize, which would you
choose?  If you "had" to come up with a left-brain concise answer?
  Astrophotography...... I ultimately do for the shear enjoyment of an
esoteric knowledge of a part of our existence.  The enjoyment of the beauty
of the natural universe.
  The thrill of scratching beneath the surface and knowing of something at
the very edge of the "actual" physical mysteries of human existence,
overseen by a God or not.  I suspect most of us here do likewise, only to
different degrees, and with only slightly different motivations.
  To me there're all ultimately "pretty pictures" or should I say "Beautiful
Photographs."  And occasionally, in those moments of understanding them, I
think, as I believe Einstein said... "beauty is truth, and truth beauty".
  At these times I actually "enjoy" the science of it all.  The melding of
Science and Art.  Both halves of the brain in agreement.  And because I
"enjoy" this so much, it is Fine Art.

My 29¢ worth,

Jim Vineyard

Visit my Astro-photography website at:
http://www.homestead.com/sky4me/astrophotography.html


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Lodriguss" <jml@astropix.com>
To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 9:23 AM
Subject: Re: [APML] Re: Science in Astrophotos?


>
> >
> >The primary discussion Chuck started was: why is a beautiful picture art
> >and not science. I answered that question, I hope.
> >Art changes people, Science tells us how Nature works.
>
>
> Hi Siebren,
>
> I think of science as a sub-category of art.
>
> As Wilson Mizner said: "Art is science made clear."
>
> Jerry
> Astrophotography, Tips and Techniques
> for Digital Enhancement in Photoshop:
> http://www.astropix.com
>
> --  APML Archives at <http://astro.umsystem.edu/apml/>  ---
>              Unsubscribe at <majordomo@seds.org>
>



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