Welcome

Artists for Science:Man's Marvellous Plasticity of Mind

Tom Currie, Educator Presented in Canadian English@dramaticscience

My Favourite Quote

Man is unique not because he does science, and he is unique not because he does art, but because science and art equally are expressions of his marvellous plasticity of mind.~Jacob Bronowski

How I've Been Treated:

As Science TeacherRevered for knowledge

Pressed for academic results

Approached regularly by parents

As Drama TeacherRevered for patience

Pressed for extra-curricular activities

Ignored regularly by parents

What This Tells Me:

ScienceSeen as the gateway to higher education

Important indicator of overall student success

A core skill for students

DramaSeen as 'an easy A'

Not important to overall student success

A hobby, or at the very least, a break from what's important

My Bold Statement

My skill as an artist is largely due to my ability as a scientist to deconstruct the discipline of acting and, through the power of observation, inference and analysis, discover new, but predictable outcomes.

My skill as a scientist is largely due to my ability as an artist to see the things that others are not looking at, to be fascinated by outliers and to be consistently seeking the limiting factors within the problems.

Training
(or: How I Got to be This Way)

Science IntrinsicNatural curiosity, and passion for learning

Need for finding a Clear Answer

Theatre IntrinsicPassion for storying

Desire to perform

Intrinsic Curiosity

Training
(or: How I Got to be This Way)

Science ExtrinsicFosters competition and also support within a community to help provide the 'best' answer

Intentional practice builds persistence, patience, and a charisma for persuasion

Theatre ExtrinsicFosters competition and also support within community to help provide the 'best' story

Intentional practice builds persistence, patience, and a charisma for persuasion

Possible Scientist's Credo:
I will...

1. Seek to uncover areas for deeper exploration within accepted theory and observational evidence

2. Provide clear, accurate, and defence-able conclusions built on a refined scientific methodology

4. Accept with empathy and skepticism new theories presented to me, as it leads me back to #1

3. Rely on, and provide attribution to those whose work has come first

Possible Artist's Credo:
I will...

Seek opportunities to participate in any presented work as a move towards the refinement of practice

Provide clear, reasonable, and defence-able scenarios for other artists to collaborate within

Accept the work of others with compassion, seeing each presentation as a path back to #1.

Rely on and provide attribution to those whom your creative work has been built with

Of Course No One Says it Like That...

Rules of Improv (as adapted from the work of Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin)

Accept and extend -- Say yes, and...

Say and do the first thing that comes to mind (within the limits of good taste)

Make your partner look good -- create situations that can be built on because they have problems worth solving.

Now apply that to Science

Find problems worth solving

Consider the work of others is as important as your own

Take reasonable risks, knowing that the experiment may end in ambiguous results.

Now does it look familiar?

Break Out Time

I'm going to play out an improv scenario with a volunteer from the Main Room

You will then be split into Break-Out Rooms to try that game out with other participants for an allotted period of time.

You will then come back to the Main Room to reflect and build on the experience.

Game 1: Saying No

Partner A gets to ask Partner B any three questions they want, but Partner B must say No to all the questions. Repeat for Partner B.If there are more than two, then you can simply try different combinations that work.

You have ONLY 2 MINUTES, so don't spend too long thinking of your questions!

Saying Yes

Partner B gets to ask Partner A any three questions but Partner A must respond with Yes. Repeat for Partner A.

Again, you ONLY HAVE 2 MINUTES so don't think, just ask.

Saying Yes, and...

Partner A will now ask Partner B a question, and Partner B must respond with a Yes and then extend the story by explaining why they said yes. They then get to continue the story by asking Partner A a question to which partner A must respond with a Yes, and...

ONLY 2 MINUTES so let the story play-out.

CAUTION

In general people are good with saying yes to new ideas, but it is very rarely an actual acceptance. More often people say Yes, but... which is actually more like saying no.

Why? We like to be right, and we like to be in control. It's the ego that gets involved. And it happens in science too.

Imagine These Scenarios

Plate Tectonics does not exist.

Gravitational constant is not.

Evolution is bogus.

Speed of light changes outside our Solar System

Saying and Doing the First Thing

There's an element of Risk letting your subconscious decide what comes out of your mouth. But according to Gladwell in Blink there's some evidence to support the idea that us scientific experts might have an intuition that is more right than if we sat down and really thought about a problem.

What Would Happen If...

What if you took one of these scenarios and let's say, --just for fun-- you decided that you would yes, and... them.

Your AND would simply be a prediction of the observations that could be made if it were true, resources that could be found to prove it were so, or thoughts that might support the theory.

Letting Impulse Go

Perceived RiskYou'll be judged by what you produce

Other's will be free to ridicule your work

You couldn't possibly be as smart as you think you are.

Actual RiskThe world misses out on a cool new idea that you were unwilling to publish for fear it would ruin you... #SaidSoManyScientistsBeforeLaVoisier

Improv Game: Impulse Release

There's a critical and important filter in our minds that checks on just about everything we think and reminds us that others are listening... Improv artists turn that off.Partner A will say a word. Partner B will say the first thing that comes to mind, trying to turn off their filter. Partner A will then say the next thing that comes to mind... and do this in a break-out room, no one wants to hear your subconscious... ;P

Conclusion

Scientists, like Artists rely on the acceptance of their ideas from a larger audience. Without the willingness to share those ideas openly, and to create a safe but scrutinizing community there would be no progression in the world of Art, or Science.The Drama program recognizes the importance of this at its centre, while the Science program seeks to refine academic success by promoting one-right-answer summations.Really, they need each other so we can continue telling important, accurate, and meaningful stories about the world around us.

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