Art or Science? Why not both?@Singapore Art Science Museum艺术与科学不能并存？@新加坡艺术科学博物馆

As its name suggests, this is a museum integrated with art and science, focusing on culture and technology, as well as creativity and knowledge. The museum is unique in appearance, like a “lotus”.
顾名思义，这是一个把艺术和科学融合的博物馆，着重文化与科技、创意和知识并重。这博物馆的外型独特，远看像是一个「莲花」或「佛手」。

In the brand new permanent exhibition, the Japanese collective, interdisciplinary creative group, teamLab, has designed an artwork with the theme "future world". With lighting, projection and multimedia technology, audiences immerse in amazing imagination of future world.
在艺术科学博物馆的全新常设展览中，邀请日本艺术集体创作团体teamLab设计为《未来世界》的展览，配合灯光、投射及多媒体等技术，以令观众置身艺术品的意境，更投入在观赏和参与过程。

There are different directions of art appreciation, such as from the art skills of artists, the messages expressed through the artwork and so on. There is no doubt that the artwork acts as a spiritual connection between the artists and audience. However, in addition to expressing their personal feelings, artists need to bear social responsibility, such as reflecting the times, or educating general public. Sometimes, as the audiences may have a kind of feeling being "withdrawal". For example, when the audiences are watching classic art paintings, they should have relevant knowledge, such as understanding art history, symbols and artist’s biography. Otherwise, they would have no ideas of artwork content. So, the reason why I like “future world” is that, it is easy to understand and raise attention to their messages. The exhibition shows the connections between environment, the city, the world and the universe. The exhibition has a total of 15 artworks. There are some impressing me, as these underline my favorite topic, urban space.

欣赏艺术品有不同入手方向，例如艺术家在制作作品的技巧、艺术家透过作品告诉观众一些讯息等等。无疑，艺术家透过艺术品，达到与观众精神上有所连结。然而，艺术家除了表达他们个人感受后，也需具有社会意义，例如反映时代、或者教育的效果。有时，作为观众，到博物馆观赏艺术品时，会有种「抽身」、「旁观者」的感觉。例如，在看古典画作时，有种「事不关己」、或是要有相关知识、如认识艺术史、符号学、艺术家的身平等，才能更了解作品内容。而我最喜欢的是《未来世界》作品，既大众化，又能带出的背后讯息，让观赏者认识环境、城市、世界和宇宙。整个展览共有15个作品，有几个作品最令我留下深刻印象，也和自己感兴趣的城市空间的理论相吻合。

The first one is shown on the curved screen. It is an animation playing the earth horizon. This animation is very simple and has no dialogue. The screen is playing a few seaside hills, slowly drowned by the sea. And later the music and the shots are quite touching. I was surprised by this animation. There is unexpected educational significance. The expression is simple and powerful as well.
第一幅是在弧形银幕中，播放一段地球水平线上升的动画。这个动画是很简洁的，没有任何对白，画面播放着几个海边小山，慢慢被上升的海水淹没，后来的音乐和画面是颇触动人心的。这个作品令我颇意外的，一来是没有预料到作品具有教育意义，二来作品的表达手法是简洁而有力。

The second artwork I like “Sketch Town”. After painting buildings, vehicles and animals and placing the paintings on the scanner, the paintings will be converted into 3D objects and shown on the screen. The concept is to advocate public participation in urban planning. It is interesting and meaningful to create our own city on our own. In “Sketch Town”, you can see a lot of different works. When the participants found their 3D objects, they all cheer up. Our city needs more people to participate and be creative. In return, it makes our city truly belong to us.
而第二个作品在纸上画上建筑物、交通工具、动物，然后把平面画作放上扫瞄机后，画中物品就会转化成 3D 物体，然后进入《Sketch Town》。这个概念源自公众参与，我们自己创作所居住的城市，是有趣又具有意义的实验。这个作品上，可以看到很多不同天马行空的作品，而当参与者看到自己的画作在屏幕上变成3D物体后，无一不欢呼起来。我们的城市，就是需要更多人参与和发挥创意，也能使其成为真正属于我们的地方。

Another concept I prefer is “park”. In the rapid pace of life and under great pressure, open space and leisure are not taken seriously in both Hong Kong and Singapore. These are even regarded as “a waste of time and no value”. The theme "park", puts forward "leisure" is an indispensable part of human life, and urges people reflect the life missing meanings and truth. One of the activities is to let visitors touch the luminous spheres with the same size of beach ball. It is very interesting that the color and sound would change after being touched.
另一个我较喜欢的概念就是公园。新加坡和香港一样在急速的生活节奏和压力下，休憩空间和玩乐是不受重视，反被认为是浪费时间的和没有价值的。而主题「公园」，提出「玩乐」其实是人类生活中不可或缺的一部分，而且希望人们反思在日常生活中的活动错过了的理想和真理。当中一个活动就是让游客触碰沙滩球大小的发光球体，触碰光球后的颜色和音效会随之变化，非常有趣。

Compared with the classical art, I believe that some people see no points of this kind of combination. However, when the artwork can reflect the times, or can let people reflect on current issues, why not appreciate the desirable points of the balance between art and science?

比起古典的艺术，相信总有人看不过眼这类与科技结合的作品。然而，当作品能反映时代、或能引起人们反思时，又何不以欣赏角度看它的可取之处呢？