Art consists of a range of human activities that create visual, auditory or artefacts to express imagination or conceptual ideas. It is intended to be appreciated for its beauty or emotional power. When art is mentioned in Singapore context, most people especially children or teenagers would associate it with Drawings, Paintings or Artefacts (such as lanterns or kites) due to the involvements in making these items during art lessons from nursery to secondary two in school. However, art comes in many different forms and is definitely more than the visual category of items which most Singaporeans have encountered during school days. Other common forms of art includes Architecture, Sculpture, Music, Poetry, Dance and Performing. All of these are important in our daily lives as they were used to communicate ideas or provide pleasures for us. A good example of art being used to communicate ideas is the broadcast of the Pioneer Generation Package advertisement on television to the elderly for the purpose of creating awareness for this package in the form of a song. The usage of art to communicate idea in this case increases the effectiveness by capturing the attention and making the content easier to remember through melodious tune. Music is another popular form of art that provides entertainment for us to relieve stress. Given the importance of art in our daily lives, there is a need to actively promote the creation and appreciation of art, an area which I feel Singapore is far lacking behind many nations.
Art and science are often perceived as polar opposites. Traditionally, tertiary institutes categorise their courses into one of these two areas and require their students to stick to one side of the fence. Although I am considered to be a technical person because of my profession and background in Information Technology, my interest and involvement in art is no lesser than the people in the arts and entertainment industry. I enjoy watching West End and Broadway musicals as they provide immersive entertainments and also greater understanding of humanity through insights into specific cultures, behaviours and thinking of people of certain eras. When I told my friends about my interest in musicals and even wrote blog posts about some of those musicals I like, they were indeed surprised to know that such a technical person like me would display such great level of interest in a form of art which locally, few people would be interested in. To debunk this perception, I replied them saying that Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Italian polymath was a scientist as well as an artist. Some of his most well-known inventions include parachute and helicopter whereas famous paintings include Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He was a perfect example to illustrate that art and science are closely related and both areas contributed to his exemplary success.
As an Information Technology professional, I have the opportunity to apply art in my work through designing user interfaces (UI) for web or mobile applications. The standards and guides provided by documentations such the Web Interface Standards (WIS) defines the objectives while art helps me overcome the subjective interpretations of the users interacting with the user interfaces. For example, the standard would mandate the size, wording and position of the various UI objects while art is being applied to design icons to prevent cluttering too much text on the screen especially on a mobile device. Icons are subjective and may be interpreted differently by different users. This is how art is applied in a field of work that is highly perceived to be purely scientific.
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