Can Art Enhance Scientific Understanding?

[RobertoV]

I am a retired architect with a big interest in physics and cosmology. I am living in Flanders (Belgium) and stumbled into this forum via a link on Bloomberg News. My background is philosophycal and technical, I have no degree in physics but several grades in other disciplines. I firmly believe that art can be an important factor in understanding what surrounds us, creativity of the brain is vital in all the Darwinistic senses, Curiosity is the fuel for creativity and it plays a major role in discovery. (I apologize in advance for eventual spelling and/or grammatical errors that I will make on this forum, English is not my mother tongue.)

 

[RobertoV]

I need help, for sure, no question about it.

 

[Klystron]

Roberto,
Your English is understandable. May I ask, as you are Flemish, if your primary language is Waloon or French? Forgive my rudeness for asking. Belgian art and architecture is first rate! Brueghel's ethereal. An entire movie was created to honor a single artist and painting "Women with Pearl Earring" by Holbein ?

-- Norm

 

[RobertoV]

Thx for your interest. It certainly can be confusing, fyi just in a nutshell:
In Belgium the biggest part of the population (65%) lives in the North, this is Flanders. Here we speak Dutch = the same language as in The Netherlands, only the accent is different. (Accent difference is comparable to England English and American English).
In the south of Belgium people speak French. (Walloon is not a real language but a an old form/mixture of French and German and nobody speaks that anymore).
Brussels is the capital of Flanders (and of Belgium and of Europe)
The girl with the pearl earring is painted by Vermeer. Actually he was a painter from Holland (just north of Flanders). Our paintters are Pieter Pauwel Rubens, Anthony Van Dijck, Jan Van Eyck, Breughel, ...

 

[Klystron]

Thanks for correcting at least two of my errors. An EU linguist once described Dutch as a language so difficult (to pronounce) that Dutch speakers are the "linguists of Europe". Certainly seems true judging from your English. I read a book about Vermeer but then one about Jan van Eyck and forever confuse them. Thanks.

 

[fresh_42]

Hello RobertoV!

I completely agree with you and just quoted yesterday a similar phrase:
Mathematics is music of the mind, music is the mathematics of the soul.

I'm afraid we cannot cover your philosophical interests, as such discussion too often went south in the past and never produced anything of value, but you will find here a lot of interesting scientific discussions and a lot which can be learnt!

Have fun and stay curious!

 

[RobertoV]

Thanks for correcting at least two of my errors. An EU linguist once described Dutch as a language so difficult (to pronounce) that Dutch speakers are the "linguists of Europe". Certainly seems true judging from your English. I read a book about Vermeer but then one about Jan van Eyck and forever confuse them. Thanks.

If I could swap my knowledge of Belgian and European peculiarities and. politics for 1% of yours on physics, I would be a very proud man.

 

[fresh_42]

If I could swap my knowledge of Belgian and European peculiarities and. politics for 1% of yours on physics, I would be a very proud man.

Bad exchange. I love the colorfulness of Europe and all these tiny, unimportant, and sometimes scuril differences among us. Every hundred kilometers basically another tribe, another tongue and often another cuisine - and almost all are delicious (I think the rotten fish of Icelanders isn't). Physics can be learnt, but imagine we were all <insert a nation of your choice>.

 

[gmax137]

almost all are delicious (I think the rotten fish of Icelanders isn't).

I was there a few years ago and tried the "fermented shark." To me, it was like chewing an ammonia-soaked rag. Memorable, yes. Our host said "better than starving in winter."

 

[Klystron]

Though set in Scandinavia, the movie "Babette's Feast" compares the bread/fish staple diet to an exquisite 5-star meal.

 

[RobertoV]

I am not sure it this adds something worthwhile to this forum: but note that Babette herself: she was French, bringing in all the tasty stuff from "elsewhere/abroad" (into Danmark).

 

[Klystron]

Apropos to Art, Babette though a servant, a cook, proved to be a master chef and consummate artist though her art existed for one meal, one night. The faces of the dinner guests express so much pleasure.