Art and Science...

February 20 2006

As I walked off from Tai Chi class to come to the computer lab to type while Marissa has fun at swing club, I walked around and I wondered...  Why is it that I can accomplish DDR like a champ, whereas real dancing is probably my bane?  So, I walked and wondered...what are the differences between them?


In DDR, you move your feet around in a given fashion at a given pace.  It's there, black and white, you make the step or you don't make the step, with only a few varying degrees of accuracy present.  In typical dancing, however, it's a little different.  The feet are involved, but so are the hands.  More to handle, that's all the difference, right?  Not quite.  The real difference lies with how it is done.  In DDR, you are basically told how to step and you react accordingly.  In typical, social dancing...you make it up, every step of the way.  Sure you have several different given moves, but it is up to you to put them together and make them work.  There's basically a limitless amount of ways to execute a dance.


So, then I got to thinking...about my strengths.  My strengths lay in mathematics and science, fields that are basically governed by measurable, quantifiable ideas.  I'm a human computer, in a sense: a computer with sentience and intelligence.  There are no random events in such fields; everything happens for a reason.


So, that's probably why I'm into DDR; it's a measurable experience that'll tell me if I'm doing it right or wrong.  That's probably also why I'm so horrible at normal dancing; it's not governed by right or wrong, it's just there.  It all just happens.  My mindset doesn't allow for me to be random and pick dance moves to execute at will.  I'm too much like a computer.


...So, I went into what was open of the art building this time of night to just kinda waltz around and look at art.  They had some sculptures up made from string and wire.  They're pretty neat-lookin'--but I cannot comprehend what they are, why they are the way they are, any significant meaning...  It's baffling to me.  I could go all day about how long the individual strings are, and I could (with a little review) tell you what curves are present and their slopes and formulas and whatnot; I couldn't tell you what it is other than a sculpture...  I couldn't say what intrinsic value lies within it.  I couldn't tell you why they made it into what they did and not some other way.  It is unexplainable.


...Am I limiting my human existance because I cannot comprehend things happening because they can?  Will I ever amount to anything more than a mere computer?  I really don't know...