From STEM to STEAM

Obstacles and Opportunities in Integrating Art with  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

(Copyright Ezra Niesen)

I’ve worked in theatre for 28 years.  Theatre is the art of recreating the entire world, and variations on it, and making it believable to audiences.  It brings all other art forms together.  Film is the art of theatre in a different medium.

When I started reading about evolutionary psychology 12 years ago, I soon realized that the most important concepts of evolutionary psychology have been the founding principles of modern theater for about a century.  Constatin Stanislavski, a Russian actor and director, pioneered a psychological approach to theatre beginning in the 1880s, inspired in part by Charles Darwin’s work.  (more…)

Mount Desert Island in the Rain

When I got to visit Maine in 2011 I was awestruck by how different it was from Arizona after having lived in the desert so long.  I got kind of carried away with shooting videos of trees and water, but I wanted to have some proof to bring back that it was real.  The day I got to visit Mount Desert Island it rained the whole time, and at it was so foggy I could barely see the ocean while standing on the beach.  The scenic view from the top of Cadillac Mountain that day was of the inside of a cloud.