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An interesting topic.

My take is that context and purpose need to be taken into consideration.

It really depends on what we are using the arts-based method for.

If you think about prototyping that is about getting ideas into a visual form quickly and continuing to develop and push those ideas along which includes form, function and aesthetics.

If we use arts-based methods to explore leadership/managerial development or other ‘conceptual’ ideas then why?  What is the reason for using the arts-based method and therefore which one as well.

What sort of arts-based method is most useful.  

I’m curious about the premise around asking students to do work that was better art.  What does he mean by that?  Is he talking about the ‘art of accounting’? Or to be artful in the way they go about accounting and being an accountant.

Is this about identity?

When I work with groups and ask them to explore concepts through arts-based methods I ask them to consider the look and feel of what they are doing.  If the end goal is to create a work of art is it that the focus in and of itself or is it to create a work of art based on the what it means to be a leader/manager?  

As a side bar to this small contribution to the discussion I would like to share a link with the group which I think starts to speak about this in some way (in particular if you look at the video about Lines of Enquiry).

Engaging in arts-based methods has the potential to know the world in different ways. 

In that video in the link https://theconversation.com/why-is-teaching-kids-to-draw-not-a-more-important-part-of-the-curriculum-60379?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%205012&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%205012+CID_60c76ef53538d8a90e95b17024915569&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Why%20is%20teaching%20kids%20to%20draw%20not%20a%20more%20important%20part%20of%20the%20curriculum 

I love the idea of the cardiac surgeon drawing how he will go about doing his surgery and sometimes with the blood of the patient (i may have a bias here given my own experiences of undergoing heart surgery).

However I find it inspiring that this person engages with art to think about his practice in different ways - and how he has been influenced by the great polymath Da Vinci.  And how he talks about the beauty of these drawings as well as the practical insight they continue to provide contemporary medicine. Quite fascinating.

On 9 Jun 2016, at 10:15 pm, Taylor, Steven S <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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
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