Sept 15th was Engineers day. My friend Savvy sent me a funny video and that is how I learnt there is such a thing. As I began to research many things memories and emotions surfaced.
Why do we celebrate Engineers Day? It is celebrated as tribute to the Indian engineer and Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Viswesvaraya (popularly known as Sir MV) on September 15th.
I wondered how come I have never heard of it? Engineers have had such a bad rap. And I feel they have such a unidimensional caricature of being left brained, logical alluding that they have mostly no right brain, atleast that is how it is said.. ”Oh!! You are an Engineer” -as if that means you are not creative, not emotional, like to only break things, and suck at interpersonal relationships. None of that is true. And all those things are true of ‘other’ professions’ also.
What is ironical is someone will say, in a condescending tone, oh these engineers are too left brained and they don’t get emotions and here are 5 reasons and logic of why it is so. Funny. I am laughing in my head in those conversations. I really do hope, people get that we have both and can use both parts, It’s not a choice.
I have always loved engineering and still do. I always felt Engineering was about connecting beauty and form. Someone would come-up with a beautiful “inspiring Idea” and then it would need engineers to bring it to life and form. Even when I was studying I would look at things working and always imagine and marvel at how somewhere behind all this “flash and mob” were some engineers working away to make things work, invisible like elves. – Build bridges, design pins, machines, roads, medical instruments, formulas, food, homes electronics, travel, you name it. If we stop to look around and take in, very soon it will be very difficult to put a finger on something that has not been touched by an engineer. And yet.
I do think, sadly, the Engineers themselves have also bought into this Stereotype. And introjected this belief. That they don’t feel. They are not creative. They are not good at relationship and communication etc.
Yet again as a society we have succeeded in creating this divide. Left OR right. Science OR Arts. Task OR Relationship. Or-And
Just a few weeks ago I was trying to open a bottle of orange marmalade. It was tight. And I did what came almost habitually to me. I turned the gas on and put the bottled lid in the fire for a few seconds. Metal expands when heated. I am sure we may have done this without a second thought so many times, and countless such ‘things’ and yet we think “Engineering” is something out there.
Logic can be beautiful and Art can be useful – BOTH are true
Without art logic is meaningless and without Logic art can be lost. We need BOTH.
Definition: Engineering (Noun)
- The branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures.
- The action of working artfully to bring something about.
We know of some known names of engineers, like one of my favourite Nicola Tesla, arguably at the top of the list of greatest and most underrated electrical engineers, who didn’t receive credit for a lot of his inventions. Or Henry Ford, who revolutionised automobile industry and did receive due credit.
We don’t know about some other Engineers and Artists who straddled the Verge – the line in-between. The Holy grail of “AND”.
Here are a few.. …
Leonardo da Vinci, yes. Most famous for his art and painting, Da Vinci was actually ahead of his time when it came to engineering. You might be surprised to know relatively few of his ideas were feasible at the time because of the limits in engineering, he conceptualised many inventions from flying machines, modern day helicopter etc.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The most renown German poet who had ever lived, was most famous for works such as “The Sorrow of Young Werther”. Goethe never saw a distinction between his poetic work and his other passion, the natural sciences. Alongside his literary works, Goethe published books on Botany and Color Theory that made real contributions to the science of the time.
Dr. Santiago Ramon Cajal, My favourite story for many reasons. The father of neuroscience, was the first to discover how neurons communicate with each other. His work would go on to win him the Nobel Prize in 1934. In his youth, Cajal was a dedicated and passionate artist who saw himself dedicating his life to drawing the natural world and portraits. His father, concerned about his ability to earn a living, pushed Cajal to pursue medicine. We see this behaviour all the time here in India
Little did either of them realize that the joke would be on them both in the end., love irony as always. Cajal went on to win medicine’s most prestigious award and his painstakingly beautiful drawings of the microscopic cells would go on to be displayed in Art Galleries and Museums around the world.
Theo Jansen born in the Netherlands. At the age of 20, he started studying applied physics at Delft University of Technology. However, during this time he also got fascinated by art. He never really got to complete his degree and left the institute in 1974.
Amongst many others of his creations what is known most is The Strandbeest. They are an engineering artwork made out of PVC pipes, zip ties and other basic things that make the use of kinetic energy to move it from one place to another. He is also known as the Modern day Leonardo Da Vinci not bad at all.
Hedy LaMarr, the Austrian born movie star known best for her roles in the films like Algiers and Samson and Delilah, both nominated for Oscars. In the prevailing binary view of the world, either one was beautiful or one as not. A woman’s appearance might have gotten her in the door but her the brilliance of her mind did not have much place at the table.
What no one sitting in the audience at the time knew, however, was that LaMarr was hard at work in 1941, along with her co-inventor George Antheil—himself an Avante-Garde Composer—inventing and patenting a technique for radio communications to rapidly switch frequencies to protect allied torpedoes from being spotted by Nazi radio detectors. A huge price is paid even today by Women, if they are ‘Smart’.It is implied that they are either not empathetic or beautiful. The series Big Bang Theory is a classic example.
I remember in school, in class 9 and 10 we had to choose between Home Science and Technical, as an optional subject. I was the only girl who chose technical. And hardly any occasion went by before someone made a snide comment about how girls must learn home science. Including some of my girl friends who would say, “Oh you are so smart” – as if it was a derogatory term. It was confusing. I thought it was smart to know how to sew or bake. I still can’t to the later.
And I remember trying to say how I was NOT smart or how they were also smart. It felt like I had to justify or downplay to fit in. So that they would not be mad at me. And I felt different. I was made to feel different. Like something was wrong with me for making that choice. I realise as I write this some of that residue is still with me, I still find myself being apologetic for being who I am, especially if others feel differently about themselves.
I must quickly add, that some of my class boys opted for Home Science, they loved cooking. And the others were equally cruel to them. They were made fun of and made to feel different. I wonder why “different” threatens us in such a way. Why do we have to cut and make everyone same.
So there, People of science who were Artists and Artists who pursued science and in the end The World was a better and more beautiful place for it.
It is Logical that we must use both sides of our brain, especially since we have them. And it takes art to Imagine HOW to do it.
Perhaps we need to think twice before belting out judgements as truths. They may be changing somebody’s lived truth. Perhaps we need to think more about how in our thinking, our language we keep creating the divides these labels that make “different’ a bad thing. Perhaps we need to really see how these “judgements” might be our own hidden desires, inadequacies or gifts perhaps? That we were too scared to own or spell out, for fear of being ridiculed or reprimanded.
Maybe we must ALL celebrate Engineers day because they gave us the AND. And it’s Potential. And Reimagine Engineering.
The Strandbeest work of Engineering and Art by the Modern Day Da Vinci. Theo
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