STEAM is important to me because I see the arts and the sciences as complementary ways of building meaning for ourselves in the world. Both areas combine elements of the personal, individual ways we view things as well as the generalizable facts, knowledge, and experiences we want to share with others. For my Ph.D., I am studying the vision of marine invertebrates, but I also use photography to record and observe the animals themselves. Photography allows me to see the animals in detail, as well as gives me a way to explore and express multiple ways of visualizing the world. With small changes in light and optics scenes can be rendered in completely different ways, reminding me that, with a diversity of eye structures, different animals see the same world in very different ways.
