When Tech Meets the Arts

Technology and the arts. Sounds like one of those “never the twain shall meet” cases, right? While that is indeed true an overwhelmingly large amount of the time, every now and then someone joins the two and the result is pure magic.

Steve Jobs said it perfectly with the perfect image in the background:

“We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts. To be able to get the best of both. To make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but also have them be intuitive easy-to-use, fun-to-use, so that they really fit the users.”

Apple’s VP of Design, Jony Ive, on the iPad:

“The face of the product is pretty much defined by a single piece of multi-touch glass. And that’s it. There’s no pointing device. There’s isn’t even a single orientation. There’s no up, there’s no down. There’s no right way of holding it. I don’t have to change myself to change the product. It fits me.”

So why don’t more companies aim for this tech-arts combo? Well, it’s not easy. Check out this example from Fred Vogelstein’s book, Dogfight, on an early iPhone prototype:

“It incorporated a touchscreen and OS X, but it was made from brushed aluminum…since neither of them were experts in the physics of radio waves, they hadn’t realized they’d created a beautiful brick. Radio waves don’t travel through metal well…Phil Kerney: “And it was not an easy explanation. Most of the designers are artists. The last science class they took was in eighth grade.”

It takes a Jobs to get past this inherent problem in trying to bringing the two together. So is there nothing other tech companies can do? Well, they still could try and get people in the boardroom with an arts background. Why? Because, as Genevieve Bell said:

“Humanities offer a different perspective on the same problems, often with different (and better) results, they bring a better sense of people and their behaviours. When you’re solving difficult problems you want cognitive diversity.”