This article, titled “High Concept, High Touch”, by Daniel Pink, made me realize the general shifts in society’s needs that take place overtime as well as the importance of art and creativity in today’s age.

Pink discusses the different ages that have occurred and claims that we are passing the “Industrial Age” and entering the “Conceptual Age” of “pattern recognizers” and “meaning makers”. I agree with this because of the way that technology enables us to reach information with ease and express ourselves. We have enough stability technologically (to an extent) to have a higher number of people able to explore the significance of human connections and reach a higher level of thinking.

It excited me when Pink points out that we are moving towards an age where not just art, but emotional and empathetic understandings are being recognized as useful and valid advantages within many disciplines (in comparison to past eras when feelings towards one another were generally suppressed and untapped). He discusses how even in scientific and medical fields that they are becoming inspired and incorporating the useful perspective that the characteristics of artists supply.

In my view, art is very closely linked with human nature as well as complex, synthesized thinking, problem-solving, and expression, which makes it a very useful mechanism for many fields. I’ve been noticing (throughout high school especially) that creative and perceptive skills are being recognized more and more  as valuable; many of our teachers motivated to view things in different ways and utilize various personal methods to synthesize our point of view. The students who worked creatively and adamantly seemed to retain more knowledge and understanding after projects than the students who only tried for the minimum.

I never fully grasped the concepts of “Left-brained” or “Right-brained” thinking, other than what both approaches entail (one analytical, orderly, detailed, and logical; the other creative, intuitive, visionary, and holistic). In the article, Pink states that “Left-direct thinking is indispensable”; however, “Right-direct” thinking is now rising from irrelevancy, to secondary, to now almost primary importance. What I found very interesting was the very end when Pink ended with the observation that in a way many people now aren’t mainly motivated by values of wealth, but more so by exhilarating self-fulfillment; not knowledge, but understanding.

All of these connections make me even more thrilled for the future of many disciplines…especially this renewed appreciation for art and design!