{"id":690,"date":"2005-05-09T08:30:16","date_gmt":"2005-05-09T15:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/05\/knowledge_vs_magic\/"},"modified":"2005-05-09T08:30:16","modified_gmt":"2005-05-09T15:30:16","slug":"knowledge_vs_magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/knowledge_vs_magic.php","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge vs. magic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a title=\"Of Two Minds - New York Times\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2005\/05\/08\/magazine\/08WWLN.html?pagewanted=1\">short piece in the <i>New York Times<\/i> magazine<\/a> exposes a common fear: that knowing how something works removes the mystery, or destroys the magic. In this case, the author is talking about recent advances in neuroscience in understanding the human brain:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nThe human brain is mysterious &#8212; and, in a way, that is a good thing. The less that is known about how the brain works, the more secure the zone of privacy that surrounds the self. But that zone seems to be shrinking.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Many have said the same for an understanding of any cultural production process: that seeing the plywood backing of a stage set destroys the illusion of the scene; that knowing the science of acoustics dissolves an enveloping sound experience into charts and graphs. Such fears have stopped many arts organizations from <i>really<\/i> exploring the processes of production with their audiences, and honestly discussing the mundane and tactical challenges of what they do.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it&#8217;s just me (I doubt it), but I experience exactly the opposite. For me, every little detail I discover about how theater works, how visual art works, how musical instruments work, how the creative process works, brings with it a greater depth of awe and a more powerful sense of magic. Similarly, scraps of insight about the pieces of a complex process &#8212; of brain function, physics, social systems, the arts, and others &#8212; just bring more wonder at the whole.<\/p>\n<p>The <i>Times<\/i> article ends with this perceived conflict of science and self:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nThe more that breakthroughs like the recent one in brain-scanning open up the mind to scientific scrutiny, the more we may be pressed to give up comforting metaphysical ideas like interiority, subjectivity and the soul. Let&#8217;s enjoy them while we can.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But how wonderous it is that all those chemical and electrical processes &#8212; no matter how much we know about them &#8212; accumulate into a sense of self, at all. Perhaps, instead of being contrary forces, discovery and wonder are part of a virtuous cycle, and we should never be afraid to keep that cycle spinning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A short piece in the New York Times magazine exposes a common fear: that knowing how something works removes the mystery, or destroys the magic. In this case, the author is talking about recent advances in neuroscience in understanding the human brain: The human brain is mysterious &#8212; and, in a way, that is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}