Hi, Steve and Everyone
I find this an intriguing question. And I certainly agree with Steve that
there's genuine value in encouraging and nurturing the making of better art
when arts-based methods are used in leadership/managerial development. As
Steve suggests, a deeper and "more mysterious knowing" is engaged along the
way.
Steve contrasts this with merely "representing our cognitive processes in
visual (or poetic or whatever) forms". I believe I catch Steve's drift here
and once again agree with his implication, but I can't help but ask myself
about the inflection point or gradient at which and through which that
representation of our cognitive processes in sensory based forms emerges as
"art" or "better art". In asking this question, I am not so much seeking a
definition but rather looking around and feeling my way into my own art
processes, the latent ambiguity and mystery that lies there which in itself
is a kind of destination for channeling my energies, my attention, my being.
A great place to visit and inhabit for a time. And I do wish to invite the
people we work with into their own version of this space.
Having said this, I should mention that my own practice with leadership and
managerial clients is one which immerses the client first in a 'live'
experience of the performing arts where the quality of the art is delivered
at the highest possible level. These "Concert of Ideas" performed by my
colleagues and I at Creative Leaps International, are designed as catalyst
events to activate sensory engagement, imagination and as much as possible
the full range of interior processes which respond to art. In a sense, they
make the levers and switches of the arts experience visible, palpable and
increasingly familiar, Illustrating how they carry meaning, emotion and
possibility. There's plenty of purposeful and, indeed, inevitable ambiguity
and mystery in the experience as well, a reminder that this too is an
element of art and of our own human nature. Later in our work process with
clients, when they are invited to immerse themselves in the making of their
own art, in the translation of their own cognitive processes into some
sensory or symbolic form, many are keen to reach deeply into their own
interiors and to inhabit that place with patience, curiosity and abiding
mystery. For me, this is what holds the real value: the impulse, desire and
capacity to inhabit that space.
John
John J. Cimino, Jr.
President and CEO
Creative Leaps Interntional
www.creativeleaps.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Aesthetics, Creativity, and Organisations Research Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Taylor, Steven S
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2016 8:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Quality of art products in arts-based methods in organizations
Hi, everyone
Last week at EURAM, Philippe Mairesse spoke about his work with accounting
students and talked about how he pushed the students to do work that was
better art. I am also struck that Jane Hilberry also spoke about how she
pushes students to write better poetry
(http://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/oa/vol1/iss1/6/). This has gotten me thinking
about the question of quality of the art (product/outcome) when using
arts-based methods for leadership/managerial development - in short does it
matter if the art is good if we're not doing it to produce good art? I don't
think anyone would claim that the LEGO sculptures created in a Serious Play
process are good art, or even that the facilitators try to get people to
create better (rather worse) art as part of the process.
My first take on this is that pushing for better quality art also pushes
farther into deeply embodied and often mysterious knowing and away from just
representing our cognitive processes in visual (or poetic or whatever)
forms. It pushes us into more ambiguous and more interesting forms that also
allow to go to new places (Barry & Meisiek's departures) than something more
straight forward and cognitive does. Thus the push for better art also has a
very useful purpose.
So, what do you think? How does concern for the quality of the art
product/outcome fit into your own practice of arts-based methods in
organizations (if you have one and it does)? How would you think about this?
What questions does this raise for you?
Regards,
Steve Taylor
Steven S. Taylor, PhD
[cid:4FEA4C90-AEE4-4F3C-99DF-657EB4452699]
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