If you are a painter, you don't need to know chemical formulas for the pigments you're using to have a direct touch to your creation.

For me, that material conciousness in computers was always in grasping the way system works holistically. To feel the system. To treat it as almost a living organism.

I would argue as a painter some knowledge of chemicas is VERY important. For example, do you need oil based or latex paint for a specific surface? Is it indoor, or outdoor? Do you need primer on that surface or not? If its metal, do you need rust converter first?