Science Carnival/ Solo Exhibition,Mohd.Noor Mahmud

The Deputy Minister of Science & Technology & Inovation, Y.B Haji Fadillah Yusof, officiated and launched the Science carnival and Solo Art Exhibition at the Muzeum Tuanku Fauziah, USM this morning. I had to get my two cents worth into the program by doing a fast charcoal sketch of the launching event and presented the sketch to the Minister. I hope it will find a space somewhere on his wall in his home or office in the future or at least it will find a space in his heart as a memory of the event. I am glad i did this as I was not at the top of myself when i left my home without a dollar in my pocket to say the least. But in order not to bring myself down and let the day become just another uneventful if not another dog day afternoon. By my performance there were students who gathered around raising questions and making remarks of what I was doing and this too was to me an accomplishment as it added to them yet another aspect of their education and being there.
The Minister's speach dealt mostly with the need for the development of extensive R&R into the IT and the need for innovative as wel as creative aspirations among budding scientist and artist. The trend that is set by globalization is affecting the country if not the world and as Malaysians it is our aim and aspiration to stay abreast with what is going on in the Global network of communication. This is the age of Information and those who have the knowhow stands to gain an edge over those who lack behind in every respect of community as well as global survival.

As an artist I am offcourse a little perturbed by the fact that with the every event of change in the Government the Fine Arts related activities gets the 'Transparency' act, which simply means the cut in budget sometimes for no ryhme or reason.The Fine Arts through history that i can recollect of has alwys become the forst to go whenever there is a financial crunch so much so that in most schools in Malaysia there is no Art classes, not even the basic drawing class! This is indeed a tragedy of error in the educational system of the nation. While science is being persued into outer space exploration Art is being grounded or 'Deep Six' for most of the financial consideration. Ther will most probably come a time when this nation will end up having alot of great scientists with barely any Artist worth mentionning in the Global field of education. No doubt we do have a handful of 'Masters' among our artists whose names has reached global recognition or at least made it to Christies's Auction,but these are mostly self made artists who despite the lack of p government financial support of collective sponsorship had perservered on their own to achieve the impossible. Most self subsisting Artist do not have any form of remunerations as far as getting a Social Security or Provident Funds set aside for them in their times of need nor do they have health or retirement benifits, most self employed Artist are out there on their own to do or die. Fortunate are those artists who have found a sponsor or benifactor who is willing to sacrifice their time ans money to support the artist who has made a commitment to be a fulltime artist devoting their time towards creative endeavors with the hope that it will help to promote a more creative thinking socitey or inspire the future generation who are not scientifically inclined to find a venue for their sense of worth being a part of the healthy society. Ironically one would find that most of our young who are trapped by drug abusses are artistically inclined but have no way of discovering their potential due to the lack of support and understanding for their talents. They become dropouts accepting the fact that being a musician or a painter in these dyas and age have no significant or financial value.
Creativity is the crux of every existing developing nation's striving to compete for survival whether in the Sciences or the Arts. To afford for creative thinking the student has to learn from day one the 'Art' of creative thinking and this is mostly achieved through the process of Artistic development of the mental faculty. Art and creativity is synonimous and for those who is able to create with an artistic ability and express with scientific accuracy there is no limit for success. When the left and the right brain is equally utilised there is perfect balance and the student if better equipped to handle the pressures that is inherent in mastering either of these faculties of the mind. This dual thinking mind the ancient have dubbed the Ying and Yang forces of Male and Female energies in today's day and age is fully being studied by various groups and entities to further understand the dynamics of the mind's capactiy to think scientifically as well as creatively. Einstien played the violin while DaVinci had designed submarines and helicopters in his days. Those who had failed to develop both their left and right brain functions have often found that their minds are limited. Their capability to express themselves when presenting their discoveries to the general public become dull or sterile thus robbing themselves of their accomplishments at the human level of understanding.
With the advent of collective thinking by the introduction of the computer and the internet most creative thinkers have been able to share their aspirations and accomplishments with the world at large. The collective mind is our next target into the future where everything that is projected into the syberspace is being monitored by the rest of world on line and in this capacity the sharing of these ideas are heightened and developed at greater speed with greater impact. Art and science must coexist hand in hand for those who seek to become global thinkers and contributors, gone are the days when Art is for the Aesthetically inclined or science is for the laboratories. Art and science has become a singular form manifest within a collective conciousness.