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Combining Technology and Artistry

I just watched a DVD of just Pixar short films.  They were wonderful, but the best moment came in the documentary about Pixar’s early history.  John Lasseter was an animator from Disney.  He joined a group of PhDs in computer science in a small room.  They bounced ideas off each other.  The interaction between them was absolutely fantastic.  John would bring art and the others brought technology.  When they mixed, it created magic.  The Pixar shorts were a perfect mixture of Technology and Artistry.

If we want our society to thrive, we need to create more instances of this happening.  We need to mix creative and technical types in small spaces to solve interesting problems.

It pains me that government (Federal, State and Local) all cut funding for the arts and education as a whole.  It’s not “spending” as the Tea Party might describe it.  It’s investment.  You put a dollar in and get 3 dollars out.  When people are trained, they become skilled labor and pay taxes.  When we have the arts around us, we reap the benefits in emotional and spiritual ways.

I believe that mankind can achieve anything. We are really clever beings.  All we need is the chance.  So much is left undone because we don’t put the right ingredients together.  What great things might you create if you were put in the right position with the right tools?

 

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One response to “Combining Technology and Artistry”

  1. Ben Nadel Avatar
    Ben Nadel

    On a somewhat related topic, I’ve started to do a lot of sketching at the office. We are brainstorming a new project and I just sit down with a pad of blank paper and start sketching thumbnails and writing down random ideas. Basically, anything that pops into my head, I try to map it out graphically.

    It’s been a lot of fun; and, I think it helps you think about the “experience” way before you think about the technical. So, in my own small way, it’s an attempt to bring the arts into the technology. It’s like I get to wear two different hats.

    Sometimes, I think it’s the wrong approach, because I’ll mock up a tiny thumbnail with nothing more than what I think the page “should” look / feel like. I don’t even necessarily know what the content will be… but, I know if I like the way it feels; then, I can go about finding the most appropriate actions. I don’t always to it that way – a lot of the time I’m action-oriented. But, sometimes sketching “pictures” gets the mind thinking in a different way.

    Plus, it’s super agile, so there’s no emotional pain of crumpling up a paper and throwing it away.

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