Jack Piller
Professor Emerson
ENG 104
6 November 2018
Art vs. Science
In the sports world today, arts and sciences may seem like they have little impact on the business of sports, when in reality they play a major role in making sports what they are today. Coaches and managers now have access to unbelievable technology and resources that allow them to evaluate and judge players on scientific levels. Social media has added a whole new element to sports allowing companies and players to spread their brand online and through the media. Sports management is an up and coming field in the sports industry and as someone studying in this field, my goal is to be as successful as possible. The integration of arts and sciences will be very beneficial to the field and create endless possibilities. A lot of people have spoken up and voiced their opinion regarding the integration of arts and sciences such as Yo-Yo Ma, who in his essay “Necessary Edges: Arts, Empathy, and Education,” discusses the benefits of adding art to the education system and creating equilibrium between art and science. In John Leher’s “The Future of Science… Is Art?” he takes things a step further by saying that science absolutely needs art. Lastly, Mark B. Boslough in his “We Must Protect U.S. Investment in the Scientific Knowledge”, he describes how science is under fire and how we must protect science from all sides.
I believe that the sports management field has just scratched the surface of what’s its full potential can really be. With the help of art and science coming together, I think that will take it over the top by adding these elements. The way that we are going to be able toand do this is if art and science areis being explored and looked at as the possible solution, rather than being ignored. Mark Boslough, author of “We Must Protect U.S. Investment in Scientific Knowledge,” explains how science is being under attack when he says, “We should again ask those in Washington to pass along the American tradition of a strong investment in scientific knowledge, and trust in the scientific method, to future generations. And we should remind them that research spending is money in the bank, not money in a hole.”. Sports needs science to successful and if the government decides to cut the funding there will be no improvements made. Science gives people in sports the ability to better themselves whether that is through performance on the field or in the office. Although art is not brought up in this article, I think the connection between art and science could help get the funding to go up. Art adds a different element to science that can help get more people involved with science as a whole. In “The Future of Science…Is Art?,” Jonah Lehrer says, “If we want to get an answer to our deepest questions—the questions of who we are and what everything is—we will need to draw from both science and art, so that each completes the other.”. Art and science really do complete each other and can open up different pathways that can be used to make new discoveries. Science provides the analytical aspect and behind the scene work while art is able to show the visual of what science has created. I think that this quote by Lehrer really hits true and makes me think why haven’t we fully accepted arts into science because the possibilities are endless.
In schools today kids are being exposed to a program called STEM. This program focuses on science, technology, engineering and math. This program is missing a critical piece and that is art. In sports management art can be a game changer, being able to incorporate art into a presentation or apply it to designing a uniform is a huge part of sports management. Award winning author Yo-Yo Ma argues in his essay that STEM should be changed to STEAM, which includes the study of art. With the world being so science and technology driven adding art it will now create a more balanced way of thinking and create more well-rounded people. Ma when discussing STEAM says, “The values behind art integration, collaboration, flexible thinking, and disciplined imagination lead to the capacity to innovate”. STEM provides students with a good education but it is desperately missing art. Art has so much to give to education opening up a new portal for learning. Thinking outside the box and imagination into sports is a recipe for success. Teams are always looking for a step up on the competition not just on the field but off the field as well. If a team is able to come up with a new creative idea that gets more fans to the games then it will also provide them with an advantage not just off the field but on the field also.
Sports as a whole have recently made the jump to making science and technology a major aspect of the industry. Science is all about thinking in new ways to try and discover something that nobody else has discovered. If more scientist decided to incorporate art into their studies the discoveries could be special. Art allows scientist to think a little differently and take a new angle at something that maybe they would not have thought of if art wasn’t present. Author John Lehrer elaborates on this point when he says, “Science needs the arts. We need to find a place for the artist within the experimental process, to rediscover what Bohr observed when he looked at those cubist paintings. The current constraints of science make it clear that the breach between our two cultures is not merely an academic problem that stifles conversation at cocktail parties”. Allowing scientists to think more freely and try more visual experiments can help bring the art and science “cultures” together. For example, in sports sometimes teams struggle with team chemistry and struggle to blend. The coach could see this and try something to bring the team closer. The coach could set up a team activity such as a team movie night. What this could do is bring all the players together and give them something to do all together and hopefully bond over. Just little things like this are how just adding a little art can change a mindset and allow someone to think differently.
Sports is an expensive business that is always growing and striving to get better and to keep up money needs to spent in order for that to happen. Science is what allows teams and business in sports to advance and get better. If funding is cut for science, that will have a negative effect on the product that is produced. In Boslough’s article he discusses how Washington is cutting the funding that is being given to science and that it is not smart to do that. He states, “We should again ask those in Washington to pass along the American tradition of a strong investment in scientific knowledge, and trust in the scientific method, to future generations. And we should remind them that research spending is money in the bank, not money in a hole”. With less money being directed towards science it affects the advances in the sports industry. Sports doctors might not be able to discovery new methods for curing injuries faster, teams could miss out on some new technology that could help them win. All of this could really hurt sports, top players could be sidelined with injuries that people want to come see play. The quality of the games could struggle to get better because they are lacking the technology that would games better.
Sports are something that I have been passionate about for as long as I can remember and I am really excited that I am going to have the opportunity to work in the sports field. As someone who watches and plays sports I never really thought about just how much of a role that art and science both play. The first time reading the articles I didn’t try to relate them to sports at all, but the second time I read them through I thought of my major sports management and I started to see things where it could apply to what I am going to be doing in the future. I realized that art and science together are so much better together than they are apart especially in sports. Science is responsible for all of the behind the scene action that prepares teams and sports businesses and do test before they are to be confident in their product. On the other hand, art is almost the finished product to all the work and science. Seeing a team run a play successfully is art because all the science and thought that went into creating the play are what makes the play look so pretty that it is art. Sports is just one example of what the integration of art and science an produce and I can’t wait to get and be a part of it in the near future.
