Alex WellersteinVerified account

Minor observation from teaching: when I ask my students (mostly engineers) how many of them like "art," only about half will raise their hands. But if I then add on that "music" is a form of art, I get 100% agreement. I imagine "film" probably would work for this, too.

I'm sure others have noticed this, but I find it very interesting how they compartmentalize "art" into something that doesn't include music, film, and so on. And how they react very poorly to the idea of liking "art" by itself.

In other discussions, they'll indicate that they think "art" is kind of pointless, unless you include music, and then they agree it has value, both to them, and to the broader culture.

I don't really know what to make of all of this, but I find it kind of interesting. I can't tell if it's an engineer thing, or a teenager thing, or a class thing, or what. (Or a college male thing, since the majority are men.)