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Special Issue: Integrating Academic and Artistic Methodologies within a PBL-environmentVol. 6 No. 1 (2018)
The combination of artistic practice with scientific inquiry has a long tradition that dates back to Ancient Greece. Despite a long and rich history, there are surprisingly few established models for combining academic and artistic methodologies in higher education. In the past decades, institutions of higher education have highlighted interdisciplinary efforts that bridge art and science. The ongoing interest in combining art with science can be seen in the numerous academic conferences (such as SIGGRAPH and ISEA) that bring together academics, artists and technologists working at the intersection of art, science and technology. The popularity of high-profile festivals and cultural summits such as SXSW (South by Southwest), Ars Electronica, and CYFEST are instrumental in raising awareness of the relevance of art and science collaborations for mainstream audiences. The STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) movement, pioneered by Rhode Island School of Design, was an early effort to address interdisciplinary approaches by placing art and design at the center of STEM teaching in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Despite the widespread adoption of STEAM by universities and institutions of higher education, there is no clear methodology for how to approach the ever-emergent, always-becoming interdisciplinary field of art and science. This lack has implications for higher education and programs that will train the next generation of creative technologists and interdisciplinary researchers.
