Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#81

Post by landom » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 4:52 PM UTC

d13 wrote: post #21

BFA in film and video production, and I've worked full time as a programmer for more than 20 years (game design and interactive educational software). The greatest mistake people make about computer programming is that they believe it's an engineering discipline. It's not at all: It creative fine art - just like drawing or painting.

Hi, I'm very curious about how you made the transition. Mainly, what was your response to the interviewers' questions about your film degree on the CV when you are first making your transition. Did they just willingly accept you as a candidate without a CS degree? How did you convince them that you are the guy for the job? Thanks

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#82

Post by randomdata » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 4:53 PM UTC

I don't have a degree of any kind, but my first real job was in the art department of a advertising company (graphic design, mostly).

These days I spend more time writing code for the artists than I do working on the art, but I'm sure that past experience is useful in communicating with others. Also, code itself is an art form. I like to think that past experience allows me to write better code, especially visually appealing code, whose importance I believe is oft underestimated.

For what it is worth, I have found the context switch to be particularly interesting. When I have been away from what is traditionally considered art for long periods, it takes a lot of failed attempts to get the mind back into the artistic mindset. It always comes back, but what seemed natural at one point in time does not come back naturally in an instant. The same is true trying to go back into the programmer mindset when focusing on artistic endeavours for long periods.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#83

Post by terda12 » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 4:55 PM UTC

jordigh wrote: post #79

I have a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics because I didn't want to take a biology course required for the bachelor of science. Works for me, as I consider mathematics more art than science (i.e. it's mostly useless), but this is probably not what you had in mind by "arts degree". I don't apply my mathematical artistic knowledge at work. I mostly used my degree to impress employers to get programming jobs ("ooh,…

I've always had a respect for anyone who has a math major. In my experience (as a comp sci major) there's a strong correlation between being a math major and being smart.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#84

Post by ghufran_syed » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 4:55 PM UTC

If anyone's interested in studying a combination of art and computing, this distance learning Bachelors degree in Creative Computing from the University of London is worth looking at: http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/g...

Costs around $2500 per year for three years. I'm currently halfway through and really enjoying it!

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#85

Post by rjm226 » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 4:56 PM UTC

spaceribs wrote: post #37

BFA student turned full stack developer here. I wanted to actually share WHY artists can really excel in this space, both positive and negative: 1. We've been trained to critique, and communicate issues constructively. This is absolutely essential to working quickly, the sooner you realize there is an existential problem with what you're doing, the sooner you can work through them. I've become an absolute user story…

Hey did you end up going back to school for a computer science degree or are you self taught?

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#86

Post by jlebar » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 4:57 PM UTC

My wife has art history and philosophy undergrad degrees, from Duke. She then went and got an architecture degree from Columbia, and now she's a practicing architect.

This was actually a somewhat reasonable progression, although if she had known for sure she wanted to do architecture when she was applying to colleges, she could have saved two years of her life and gotten a five-year undergrad bachelors of architecture degree instead.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#87

Post by almcd » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 4:59 PM UTC

I have a BA in History of Modern Art and an MA in Contemporary Art Theory, but now work as a Front-end Developer.

I originally taught myself HTML, as a teenager, approx 16 years ago. The web was a continuing interest in the following years and the work of people like Joshua Davis, Daniel Brown and Yugo Nakamura was a significant inspiration.

After graduating I was looking for work and found plenty of demand for the basic web design and development skills I'd been gradually acquiring as a hobby over the preceding years. Consequently, I started dedicating significant time to improving my programming skills and establishing my career as a developer.

Similar to the comments of others on this thread, I've found the key benefits of my arts background to be schooling in:

- critical thinking

- communication

- visual / aesthetic fluency

Two notable differences I've found between the two fields:

1. STEM vs humanities

Currently, developers often tend to have a science / mathematics background or an affinity with those disciplines. Work that is often considered most effective in the arts is ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations. This is quite a cultural difference from the empirical search for knowledge in the sciences or the eternal truths of mathematics.

2. Social status

The respect accorded to developers in comparison to the majority of professionals of the visual art world (artists, curators, educators etc) is extraordinary. Societies frequently don't seem to know what the purpose of art really is, especially given that the arts often have an obtuse or outright critical relationship to capitalism. Developers, as the key technicians of the information economy, in contrast typically receive a great deal of autonomy, prestige and financial reward for their work.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#88

Post by spaceribs » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 5:06 PM UTC

rjm226 wrote: post #85

spaceribs wrote: post #37

BFA student turned full stack developer here. I wanted to actually share WHY artists can really excel in this space, both positive and negative: 1. We've been trained to critique, and communicate issues constructively. This is absolutely essential to working quickly, the sooner you realize there is an existential problem with what you're doing, the sooner you can work through them. I've become an absolute user story…

Hey did you end up going back to school for a computer science degree or are you self taught?

I'm self taught, but my job is becoming more computer science focused every day. I have a lot to catch up on and study in the coming year to keep up to bridge what I already know from building applications to the computer science concepts I lack.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#89

Post by tomek_zemla » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

zachrose wrote: post #68

I got a BFA from my state university in "Digital Arts", which for me was a combination of filmmaking, ceramics, and graphic design. I didn't start programming until my last year of school when I wanted to make stupid simple blinking lights with microcontrollers[1]. I agree with lots of responses in this thread about the roles of conceptual integrity and openness to criticism. The other thing I would add is that my pa…

I share your observation about STEM. I do feel hopeful after I learned about STEAM - the term defined I believe by John Maeda. The A is for the arts and its importance as the reason why STEM exists... Meaning all the science/engineering efforts should be in the service of humanities.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone here have an art degree?

#90

Post by babbeloski » Sat, Jan 07, 2017, 5:10 PM UTC

BFA in Illustration, currently leading the UI team at a 'big data' company in NYC. I'd say what translates from art to tech is the constant spiral of learning and improving. It takes a lot of patience and persistence to learn how to draw and paint. It doesn't come fast, it's years of struggle until your skills converge with your aesthetics. Programming is a lot like that, and it's never ending. You're committed to being a life long observer of what's going on, taking influence from things you like; it's always changing and growing, and that's what keeps it interesting.