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Originally Posted by Chris is me
But there's tons of examples of this. Architecture is the intersection of structural engineering requirements, and artistic / aesthetic use of space. Knowledge of both tangible and concrete math and science needs to be combined with intangible experience in spatial design and layout. Engineering also uses architectural principles in it as well - one example that comes to mind for me because it's related to my work is the layout of a shop floor in order to optimize a process. Optimizing this layout requires some artistic vision in how objects can be oriented around each other and how parts can flow through the system, combined with the hard math and science of operation times, flow control, operator steps, etc.
Music has tons of engineering in it - the production, design, and operation of audio systems, speakers, monitors, musical instruments, synthesizers, recording devices, playback devices all require heavy doses of engineering and science in the quest for artistic self-expression. There's absolutely a lot of mathematics in musical composition and physics in the entire concept of audio. This is probably the field that the connection is the most obvious in - music could not exist without STEM, and the music industry is a valid and relevant field for someone in STEM with an art interest to go into.
I'm less familiar with other forms of art, which there are obviously many, but anything from theater to cinematography to painting to sculpture, to varying degrees, involves STEM subjects, and all sorts of STEM fields incorporate the artistic lessons taught in arts fields. This is less tangible for me to explain because art is so subjective but I believe artistic design, aesthetics, culture, and society shape the kind of engineer and mechanical designer that I am, and that I'm a better engineer for my appreciation and interest in the arts (even if I'm not as good at them). I also believe that when I've worked on or completed an engineering design, I have created art.
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None of these even begin to resemble the scale of conceptual similarity between the "traditional" STEM fields. Can we find examples of overlap between arts and STEM? Of course. Does that mean that the "STEAM" label is similarly coherent to STEM? Not even close.
For example, I can point out that some birds are aquatic - after all, look at penguins! This does not mean that I should adopt a term for "Birds and Aquatic Animals" when I mean to speak about
birds. Even if it were the case that ornithologists systemically devalued marine biology, it still would not be a good idea.
I'm sorry, I'm simply not buying the argument that the "A" in "STEAM" does not stand out.
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I'm saying they ARE intimately related, and the fact that people don't observe and appreciate this is all the more reason for its inclusion in the label. The structure of our education system may not recognize them as similar concepts, and many STEM people may devalue the arts, but that does not mean there is no relationship, and it doesn't mean that it's not beneficial for us to view the subjects as related. I think it is.
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It is not useful to derail discussion of STEM, in which we discuss many things that are relevant to the subjects that fall under the STEM label but
not art, by forcing ourselves to include in our discussions a subject that has a comparatively very different set of features and concerns.
I am not saying that we should never discuss "STEAM." I am saying that adopting a policy of replacing the "STEM" label with "STEAM" is a bad idea, especially if it's only out of some feeling that "we don't care enough about art."
Here's another way to think of this: how many academic subjects can you think of that clearly do
not fit under the "STEAM" label? In an information-theoretic sense, a label that specifies everything is no more useful than a label that specifies nothing.