Many times the arts are overlooked in the educational system. Some school districts face financial budget cuts, threatening to erase arts education from the curriculum because they are deemed as having little relevance, value, or application in comparison to the academic subjects. Some argue even that they have little real-world applicational relevance at all. However, those who do study art know there’s just as much applicable value as science, math, computer science, engineering, physics, and anatomy. Though each art form doesn’t necessarily concern itself with the data that is tied to it, looking through an academic lens shows how much real-world application there is to art.
In school we learn that sound is caused by vibrations in the air, and that same idea can also be applied to music. Music is entirely mathematics, boiled down to it’s scientific essence. In Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, the first three notes consist of a D Major triad (meaning the chord consists of the root: A, a major third: F#, and a major fifth: D). “But these aren’t just arbitrary magic numbers. Rather, they represent the mathematical relationship between the pitch frequencies of different notes which form a geometric series.” Really what this means is that all music is a function of math and every single note can be graphed as a sine wave: the note A equals 440 Hz, F# equals 370 Hz, D equals 294 Hz. The relationship between a collection of notes (or chord) can be graphed to visually depict the consonance and dissonance. Every song, every note, every time someone hums a melody, the humming of your bathroom air vent, the chirping of birds, is the quantified presence of mathematics in the world, and those who don’t see the value of music don’t even realize it.
Dance is one of the more abstract art forms. However, even dance can also be reduced to physics and anatomy. Dance really is combinations of momentum, torque, friction, and an understanding of the center of gravity (especially in regards to turns). This video, posted by Ted-Ed, breaks down dance through the lens of physics incredibly well, “The fouetté is governed by angular momentum, which is equal to the dancer’s angular velocity times her rotational inertia. And except what’s lost to friction, that angular momentum has to stay constant while the dancer is on pointe. That’s called conservation of angular momentum. Now, rotational inertia can be thought of as a body’s resistance to rotational motion. It increases when more mass is distributed further from the axis of rotation, and decreases when the mass is distributed closer to the axis of rotation.” This equation can be summarized as L = Iω. Dance is a series of embodied physics, from the simple act of walking, to the complexity of turns, and jumps.
Another academic application of dance is anatomy. Understanding anatomy is crucial to a dancer’s career: anatomical familiarity prevents injury, can increase flexibility with stretching, and sustain the strength and longevity of the muscles and body. An excerpt from an article written for the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science shows just how vital anatomical knowledge is, “The psoas is one of the longest and most powerful muscles in the body, and it is ‘the only muscle that attaches to the spine, pelvis and femur’… Clearly a powerful source of energy of that sort, located right in the center of the body and attached to three anatomical unites that are most crucial to dance movement – the lower spine, pelvis, and hip joint – has to be respected.” This is only a small example of what anatomical insight provides, and dance requires far more to be an accomplished dancer. Knowing which muscles in your legs are used for your inner and outer rotation, how the hip flexors, hamstrings, and calves correlate to achieving your splits, or a deeper lunge, or a more extended battement is all rooted in anatomy.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, a more objective application of art happens to be technical theatre design. Scenic design is fundamentally based in mathematics and engineering. The theatre’s measurements are taken and reduced to a model size, the set is designed in proportion to the model and then enlarged to fit the size of real theatre in proportion to the model, all while needing to be functional, safe, and what the designer and director aesthetically agreed on. Mimi Lien, Tony Award winner for Best Scenic Design in a Musical for Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 describes the relationship between what people consider ‘real-world skills,’ and her art, “People often ask me, ‘How did you find your way to doing set design from architecture?’ And I always think it’s a funny question because to me the tasks that I’m doing are exactly the same: building models and drafting. However, it’s almost like set design and architecture [are] the flip sides of the same coin, but with set design it’s a completely ephemeral thing.” Lighting design works with computers and light technology, using computer science to manipulate and shape light to create an effect onstage. It requires a knowledge of circuiting, calibration with the computer system and the lights, even how light reacts with fabric for costumes, and other layers of light.
The arts are just as, if not more applicable in the real world as any other subject. They have as much math and science applied as architecture, physical therapy, physics, engineering, etc. I would even argue that the arts are far more attainable to students in grade school than studying each STEM subject individually; students can learn how they apply to the real world more than just theoretical story problems, or labeling diagrams of the body, or physics abstracted in variables and numbers. The chasm between arts and STEM subjects isn’t as wide as we imagine and perceive them to be. They are integrally tied to one another, and are equally valuable.
Works Cited:
Schmitt, Jacob. “Working to keep the Arts in Public Schools.” Education Funding Partners, 17 July 2017. http://www.edufundingpartners.com/2017/07/17/working-keep-arts-public-schools/.
“Music and math: The genius of Beethoven – Natlya St. Clair” Youtube, uploaded by Ted-Ed, 9 September 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAxT0mRGuoY.
“The physics of the ‘hardest move’ in ballet – Arleen Sugano.” Youtube, uploaded by Ted-Ed, 22 March 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5VgOdgptRg.
“Functional Anatomy in Dance Training: An Efficient Warm Up Emphasizing the Role of the Psoas.” International Association for Dance Medicine & Science, 2011. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.iadms.org/resource/resmgr/Public/Bull_3-2_pp13-17_Solomon.pdf. Accessed 10 February 2019.
Chow, Andrew. “2017 Tony Award Winners.” The New York Times, 11 June 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/theater/tony-winners-list.html.
“Working in the Theatre: Scenic Design.” Youtube, uploaded by American Theatre Wing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXYX5YXjYaA.
“Working in the Theatre: Lighting Design.” Youtube, uploaded by American Theatre Wing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqMYsjHU5rU.
Data/Society/Decision-making Spring 2019 