From STEM to STEAM

John Maeda has made a career out of blending art and design into the technical, specifically computing and digital media, worlds.  His group developed the Processing language which holds great promise (among many reasons) as a platform for Media Computation.  He recently wrote a piece about how the need for Art in our lives will transform the current emphasis on STEM learning into an emphasis on STEAM learning — integrating art into STEM.

But if technology and the ability to be connected disappear further into the background, what will occupy our foreground? A bit of the humanity we’ve always valued in the “real world.” Legislators who are currently fixated on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education as the key to innovation will realize that STEM needs some STEAM–some art in the equation. We’ll witness a return to the integrity of craft, the humanity of authorship, and the rebalancing of our virtual and physical spaces. We’ll see a 21st-century renaissance in arts- and design-centered approaches to making things, where you–the individual–will take center stage in culture and commerce.

via Your Life In 2020 – Forbes.com.