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Can Art and Science Capture the Human Experience?
Artifact Episode 3,366
March 20, 2025, 10:06 p.m.
A Regular Day, A Big Question
Today was pretty ordinary. Nothing special happened. But here's the question that's been swirling in my mind: Can we truly capture the essence of human experience through art and science? Sounds deep, right? It came to me after diving into Leonardo da Vinci’s mind, thanks to the web series Leonardo’s Demons. If you think he was just the guy who painted the Mona Lisa, think again—he was a genius in so many ways. His work got me thinking, so I asked ChatGPT for questions to think like him. And this one really stuck with me.
What Is Human Experience, Anyway?
Let’s break it down. What is human experience? It's all about emotions—the things we feel. Love. Anger. Happiness. Sadness. Loneliness. Excitement. The question is, can art and science capture all of that? Let’s dive in.
Art: The Heartfelt Expression
Art is all about feelings. It’s the language that speaks to our hearts. Take a painting of a beautiful landscape—mountains, a river, and a sunset. Just looking at it can make us feel calm or nostalgic. Or music—it can make us cry with a sad ballad or get our hearts racing with an upbeat EDM track. Movies? They can make us laugh, cry, or cheer. Photography, like a lonely figure standing in an empty room, can make us feel isolation. The best part? Art doesn’t have to be real to make us feel something. A superhero flying in a movie? We all know that’s not real, but it still makes us feel that rush of excitement.
Science: Truth, Not Emotion
Now, science is a bit different. It’s all about facts. No feelings, just the cold, hard truth. Science explains how things work. For example, it tells us that Earth will eventually die billions of years from now. That’s true, but it’s also a little... unsettling. I remember being around six or seven years old, drawing planets on a slate after reading a poem about space, dreaming of becoming an astronaut. Then, someone in my neighborhood passed away. I asked my mom what death was, and she explained that everyone dies—me, her, everyone—after living a long life. That hit me hard. At that age, I didn’t understand life or death, but the raw, unfeeling truth was there. It was unsettling. That’s science’s language: facts that don’t care about how you feel.
Can Science Ever Make Us Feel?
Okay, so science doesn’t focus on emotions... but can it ever make us feel something? Actually, yes. Think about parachuting. I’ve never done it, but I’ve seen videos. You’re up 500 feet in the air, looking down at the tiny roads, houses, and rivers below. It’s an overwhelming moment, a rush of beauty. Hot air balloons work the same way. Science explains why they float—hot air rises and lifts the balloon. But even though it’s science, it still gives you that feeling of freedom and wonder. It’s not the imagination of art, but the reality of science that can stir emotions.
The Magic When Art Meets Science
But the real magic happens when art and science come together. Take the movie Interstellar. It’s a perfect example of both. The story itself is pure art—about love, sacrifice, and the relationship between a father and his daughter. But it’s grounded in science—things like wormholes, black holes, and time dilation. The science is so accurate that it feels real. But what makes it amazing is how the emotional weight of the story—the love, the loss, the separation—is made even more powerful by the vast, cold truth of space. The blend of heart and mind gives us something really special.
So, Can We Capture the Human Experience?
So, can we ever truly capture the essence of the human experience? Art does it by expressing emotions. Science, on the other hand, does it indirectly—through inventions that awaken feelings. But when they come together, like in Interstellar, they create something powerful. Leonardo da Vinci, with his blend of art and science, would’ve loved that. We may never fully capture every bit of what it means to be human, but art and science together bring us closer than anything else.
That’s it for now. Thanks for listening.