A professor of Art History, Ola Oloidi, and Art Criticism has called on the management of tertiary institutions to recognise the contributions of art courses to national development.
Oloidi, of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), who made this call while delivering the 6th Annual Lecture of the School of Environmental Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), said it has become necessary to avoid programme translocation and save the disciplines in the Arts from extinction.
In his lecture titled “Knowledge Scientification in Nigeria’s Tertiary Institution: Implication for Art and Technology,” he canvassed for synergy and cross-fertilization of ideas between the arts and sciences.
Oloidi said: “In modern technology, sciences and arts are inseparable. Scientists produce the means, while artist/designers produce the form; making art the flesh and science the soul of not only modern technology, but also industrialization.”
Lamenting the negative effect of the scientification process in the arts or arts-related disciplines, he said Fine or Applied Arts also known as Visual Arts which has impacted positively on every area of human endeavor, especially manufacturing, has been most dangerously affected at the expense of creativity and design technology. This has reflected in re-christening of Art related disciplines to the sciences thereby systematically initiating those Arts courses into the elitist cult of science.
Speaking further on the importance of arts-related disciplines in contemporary society, the don quoted The New Book of Knowledge, which stated that “art is one of humanity’s oldest inventions”.
“It existed long before a single farm was planted, before the first villages were built. Art was already thousands of years old when writing appeared; in fact, the letters of the alphabets were pictures,” he said.
Summing his lecture up, the don said no nation can experience industrialization without the unity of art, science and technology because production of industrial products and other designs must always start with sketches or linear drawing; graphic designs, floral design, fashion design and lighting design. All these designs put together bring aesthetic to human being and the environment.
Earlier in his address, the FUTA Vice-Chancellor, Prof Adebiyi Daramola, represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof Adedayo Fasakin said the theme of the lecture was fascinating in the sense that beauty of science is the way it replicates scientific knowledge.
