<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">John Thackara similarly points out the the exclusionary fallacy of the current "STEM" obsession in his most recent newsletter:<div><br></div><div><a href="http://designobserver.com/emailview.html?email=2308">http://designobserver.com/emailview.html?email=2308</a><br><br></div><div>---</div><div><br><b>Escape from the STEM cell</b><br><br>Last month, as the Dutch government expelled trouble-making artists from the state funding system, UK and US policymakers demanded a stronger focus by education on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — the STEM subjects. They claim a STEM workforce "determines a nation's ability to sustain itself."<br><br>No it does not. A too-sharp focus on STEM creates an innovation policy that is not fit for purpose. We need to diversify, not reduce, our ways of knowing and acting in the world. We need to emphasize the social dimension of innovation, not just technology. And we need to master systems thinking more than silo thinking. Experimental art and design can help us do all of the above — not as an alternative to science, but as its enrichment.<br><br>True innovators decline to remain locked in the STEM cell — as this month's stories show. They include craft brewers who are also into urban renewal; geeks who are also into gardening; and a blacksmith who's designed a high-tech permaculture greenhouse. These guys, who use science and art in a whole systems context, are where the future lies.</div><div><br></div><div>--</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>cheers,</div><div>david</div><div><br></div><div><br><div>---<br><br>david mcconville<br>director, noospheric research division<br><a href="http://www.elumenati.com">http://www.elumenati.com</a><br></div><br>On Jul 9, 2011, at 10:47 AM, Gabriella Coleman wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite">A little tangential but NSF is thinking of cutting their Social Science<br>research programs. David Brooks has a good op ed (which is very science<br>oriented but probably necessary for the audience he is trying to reach)<br><br><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/opinion/08brooks.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/opinion/08brooks.html</a><br><br><br>All best,<br>Biella<br><br>On 07/09/2011 09:26 AM, Simon Biggs wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite">Hi Mark<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">The arts and humanities are under attack, especially in the UK where, other<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">than Scotland, there has been a 100% cut to the government undergraduate<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">teaching grant in all except STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">and medicine) and a tripling in student fees to make up the difference.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Whilst STEM is ring-fenced by government policy the rest have to justify<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">themselves in a now competitive market. Some institutions, without STEM<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">programmes, now receive no government income for teaching. The subsequent<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">instrumentalisation of arts, humanities and social sciences is no surprise.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Here in Edinburgh, which will be affected by the changes south of the border<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">but in as yet uncertain ways, we are trying to look beyond the arguably<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">false dualities inherent in UK government HE policy. This September we have<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">a new MSc by Research starting up in Interdisciplinary Creative Practice. It<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">welcomes graduates from all subjects and we are keen to ensure a spread of<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">students, from STEM, social sciences, arts and humanities as the mix will<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">inform what the students can do together. It is its first year so we will<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">see how it goes but recruitment has been promising.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/finder/details.php?id=656<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">http://ddm.ace.ed.ac.uk/ICP-info.html<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Best<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Simon<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">On 06/06/2011 07:09, "Mark Marino" <markcmarino@gmail.com> wrote:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Hi, IDC-ers,<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Last summer I met a computer scientist who shared with me his hierarchy of<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">knowledge. In his schema, the sciences were at the top and all branches of<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">knowledge and learning in the academy fell underneath. By his account, at<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">one time, due to a collective ignorance, much of knowledge was ordered under<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">the Humanities, but slowly over time that ice cap had been chipped away and<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">had floated off and melted into the larger sea of Science where it<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">belonged. By his account medicine, astronomy, and many other realms of<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">knowledge had been relocated to their rightful place, leaving only certain<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">types of speculative philosophy, perhaps a few arts, and other trivial or<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">superfluous enterprises.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">I don't think this computer scientist was misrepresenting his perspective to<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">be provocative, though I do believe he knew exactly which of my buttons he<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">was pushing. His pedestal for positivism was built upon a larger progress<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">narrative (that a humanities course might even critique). Nonetheless, it<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">took a long coffee break with a philosophy librarian friend to pull me back<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">from the ledge or perhaps get me off the war path.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">In an age where very reasonable folks are questioning the value of a college<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">education, when the digital humanities seem to be flourishing, and when the<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">US and global economies are still flagging sending students into their most<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">pragmatic shells, I wonder if it isn't time for a new kind of humanities<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">course. I guess I am thinking about something different than what I know<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">to be "digital humanities" in as much as that can mean the humanities plus<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">computers (not to reduce -- I just don't mean that version of DH.)<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Remember last year and Cornell's President Skorton's address?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/01/humanities<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">From an Inside Higher Ed article on the topic:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Robert M. Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities,<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">said he has noticed increasing concern among university leaders about "the<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">marginalization of non-scientific work" in higher education. "At every<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">meeting these days, there is concern expressed about the status of the<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">humanities and the fear that the humanities and to some extent the social<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">sciences are being sidelined in a discussion about higher education that<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">seems to focus almost exclusively on the economic value of universities."<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Are the Humanities under attack? If they need rescued and if so how?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">So here's an idea, and this is not new: humanities need to be able to show<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">what they can offer even the sciences. (Now I don't mean getting caught up<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">in the debate over the "value" of the humanities directly -- as that's like<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">trying to defend a fine arts program on the basis of the Christie's auction<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">price on a few Picasso's. Also Stanley Fish's retort that the humanities<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">need not justify themselves comes to mind, but it's probably easier to make<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">that claim when you are the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">and a professor of law. That's not to slight, but to say it's easier to<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">claim the humanities don't need to argue their value when you've already<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">established/earned your own security.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Here is where my personal interest comes in with Critical Code Studies in<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">the Humanities and Critical Code Studies (HaCCS Lab), where one of the goals<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">is to create new spaces for humanities and computer scientists to meet and<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">discuss. While I think it is naive to suggest that the humanities will all<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">of the sudden be valued the way the sciences are, I'd be interested to hear<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">about humanities courses geared toward scientists. Not Rocks for Jocks but<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Greeks for Geeks. Critical Theory for Civil Engineers. I'm interested in<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">classes that teach the traditional humanities topics but that are aimed at<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">the science students -- beyond, say, the History of Science or the History<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">of the Philosophy of Science. Which is another way of asking: what can the<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">humanities teach the sciences (which probably plays into a completely<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">useless binary)?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">I guess I've been thinking a lot about what humanists can offer code studies<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">and can't help feel that we could design humanities courses geared toward<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">science students that would be (actually and hopefully perceived to be)<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">valuable to their pursuits -- with perhaps the long-term goal of not erasing<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">but seriously smudging the division between the sciences and humanities.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Don't get me wrong -- these would INCREASE humanities offerings, not take<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">the place of current classes.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">I know I'm preaching to the interdisciplinary choir, but can anyone reply<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">with actual courses they've taught or offered at their institution that seem<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">to fit this bill? Can we propose imaginary courses that might accomplish<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">these goals? Or does this in effect undervalue that work that any good<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">humanities course does already?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Thoughts?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Mark Marino<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">HaCCS Lab<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">University of Southern California<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://haccslab.com<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">_______________________________________________<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">(distributedcreativity.org)<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">iDC@mailman.thing.net<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">List Archive:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">iDC Photo Stream:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">RSS feed:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">iDC Chat on Facebook:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Simon Biggs | simon@littlepig.org.uk | www.littlepig.org.uk<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">s.biggs@eca.ac.uk | Edinburgh College of Art<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">www.eca.ac.uk/circle | www.elmcip.net | www.movingtargets.net<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><br></div></body></html>