the role of art in change
DATE OF ENTRY: 1-21-25
Why art for change?
What does art have to do with anything beyond the physical or visual outcome of an artful piece of work?
Let me preface this with the fact that I was a corporate manager and change leader for over 15+ years. So, when I suggest what I’m about to suggest, it doesn’t come from a place of not knowing how industries and organizations work.
Toward the end of my corporate career, I was studying Systems Thinking as the discipline that could likely help turn work around for the better. For some, work is just work but for me, I think and feel that work can still experience amazing success and profit through a more human paradigm and model. Systems Thinking has a significant streak of humanity built into the way it looks at systems so it seemed like the right model and mindset to adopt.
Still for me, it was missing something that I could not quite put a finger on…that was until I decided to pick up a camera and start exploring my artistic side.
It was art that was the Aha! moment. But not simply visual or physical art…a much more expansive understanding than that.
Art is at the origin of the human capacity for bringing new or renewed visions into the world….wherever some new art is either needed or desired.
———
Art vs Artifacts
“Art vs. artifacts” is something that occurred to me as I got further into my journey. I reflected on my past work and how much it was all built upon and guided by sets of artifacts created to manage and control the work.
So, all human visions start from an “artful” place but as the desire to turn the art into work and business emerges, artifacts are needed to control and manage the art dynamic.
I saw this directly in my own experience. Every time there was an initiative to start, a project to kickoff, or a problem to solve, we would turn our attention to the set of artifacts already in place created specifically for these objectives. And when we clearly need some new art because the approaches and processes had become so problematic, instead we would try to make the artifacts work even harder or better.
Realizing this is the typical evolution of a vision or idea, “art vs. artifact” will become a leading principle to focus on as we get into deeper dialogues about change and transition.
We can ask ourselves as we think about fixing or improving something under the guise for genuine change or transition:
“Are we starting off by talking about improving through the use an existing artifact or are we starting from a vision for new art?”
END OF ENTRY
NEW ENTRY: 2-7-25
It’s rare to find some contemporary writing that touches on the idea of art vs artifact but I”ve found an example this morning.
“It’s what happens when you have “STEM without the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities…”
Tech was an original human vision (art) at some point but as those with the vision wanted to turn the art of tech into a profitable business, they had to develop a host of artifacts for managing and controlling it. So other techies developed all of the cloud-based programs and platforms for creating the artifacts that turn tech into work and business.
Tech itself is now an artifact. It is no longer an art.
Tech is being slapped onto almost everything under the guise that doing so will improve whatever existed prior to the new tech layer being added. The marketing says, “look at this new art!” but the actual outcome is the rehashing and abuse of an artifact that has become the wrong tool for the job of change.
I love the mention of rent, roomates, taxes, etc…because this is what tech has been reduced to…slapping a layer of code onto something that is fine as it is and calling it innovation and change.
This is not art. This is not change.
