The arts students

For years I haven't spent any significant time on campus. Unless you count a quick look around the nightclub-like library, or the trip to buy a bubble tea. But today we were on campus for a conference that involved students from across the faculties, including arts, law, commerce, engineering and us medical students. It's a good time to hear about all those issues like carbon market, global warming, and sustainability that I've never understood. And a good time to learn about other students from my university. I can't help but stare at the arts students. The interesting and elaborate hairdos, the strange clothing, and the ideas.

Mum always said that arts students have a different way of thinking to science students and I didn't quite believe that. But we saw a presentation from a visual artist which really demonstrated the leap from idea to idea, the big picture, the abstract thinking that is baffling to us medical students who are bound to reality (after all, would you really want your doctor to have creative and artistic ways to manage your illness?) The artist's approach to climate change was spreading empathy, spreading empathy is what we need - an empathy virus. Or the sustainable fashion talk yesterday. Sustainable fashion, buying boutique non mass production fashion? Involving the fashion industry to sustainable fashion? To me these ideas are too abstract. How about something practical like stopping clothes production altogether and reusing the plentiful items we already have. Finally, in the afternoon I casually flipped through the student publications magazine with a strong arts bias that is so different from the science student publications. I came across an article elaborately describing the life of pigeons on campus, and another with vivid descriptions of good and bad kissers, and other obscure topics that makes me feel like I'm in a different world.

Their worldview is so different it's fascinating. It's the passionate ideas and visions, without solid grounding in reality or an imaginable mechanism that confuses me. Castles in the air. Innovation? And not to be mean but we're sure some of them take marijuana and the likes to get in touch with their creative side. It makes you wonder, what is the role of our arts students and graduates in society? I guess it's a certain skill set. Ideas and creativity are useful, people who can talk with conviction about something abstract and unclear is useful too. These are some of the more vocal people in society, the activists about current issues, world issues. Any arts students there with a different view?