Why Would Steve Jobs Read Wordsworth?

In South Korea, the 2010s brought a surge of interest in the humanities. EBS aired Michael Sandel’s lectures on justice, and accounts of Steve Jobs’s interest in the humanities prompted people to ask what they might bring to technology.

Two words kept coming up: the humanities and convergence. The idea was that disciplines could gain something by crossing their usual boundaries.

Why Would Steve Jobs Read Wordsworth?

Jo Suk-gyeong’s book appeared in the middle of that discussion.

Jobs had become an emblem of the meeting between technology and the humanities. Jo uses that familiar example to introduce a range of encounters between fields.

The sudden interest could feel surprising. Businesses began talking about hiring people versed in the humanities, and public events such as book talks gave those subjects a larger place in everyday conversation.

The book asks what the humanities can do in combination with other disciplines.

What Does It Mean to Bring Fields Together?

In Jo’s account, it takes more than working in two areas at once. Understanding both can give someone the materials to make something new.

Even when the result is familiar, two disciplines can work well together and bring out strengths each has on its own.

Twelve Examples

The book considers twelve encounters, including scientific principles in architecture, science on the stage and ideas from science that surface in works of art.

Each has a chapter of its own, so readers can dip into the examples in any order.

• Science and philosophy — the appeal of simplicity in Apple’s design
• Science and libraries — desires dreamed through roses
• Science and theatre — Oxygen and Copenhagen
• Science and visual art — fractal patterns in a starry night
• Science and cities — the city Marco Polo dreamed of
• Science and investigation — the prism of evidence
• Science and sport — science on the football pitch
• Science and media art — was the Moon humanity’s first television?
• Science and cultural heritage — from Queen Seondeok to Jeong Yak-yong
• Science and wine — between divine tears and human drink
• Science and literature — recognizing science fiction when you see it
• Science and music — neuroscience as a meeting point

Book Information

Why Would Jobs Read Wordsworth? Twelve Conversations Across Disciplines

Author

Jo Suk-gyeong

Publication date

12 April 2013

ISBN13

9788962170733

View book on YES24

OWL MAGAZINE may earn a commission from purchases made through the affiliate link in this article.