Art as a System of Knowledge: Arts-Integrated Inquiry in Scholarly and Professional Discourse

Good morning, everyone. We want to start with a simple idea that has been shaping our work. That art is not just a form of expression, it's a way of knowing. We're all very familiar with the idea of science as a system of knowledge, and we're familiar with the idea of religion as a system of knowledge. But today, we want to explore the idea that art also functions as a system of knowledge. One that helps us perceive relationships, generate insight, and understand complexity. And we're not just going to talk about that. We're going to experience it together. I'm Amalia Gubat. I have a background in communications and education and a Master of Arts Leadership in Cultural Management. I'm joined by two collaborators in this work. >> Hello, I'm Kat Golohorn. I'm an educator, a librarian, and an arts entrepreneur focused in ceramics and publishing. >> And I'm Stephen Morris. I have a background in computer science and organizational leadership and change. I'm a retired Air Force officer and also an artist. And together, we created Sparkenue. >> We'll then invite Kat to begin by helping us to arrive in the space together. >> Thank you, Amalia. Before we explore art as a system of knowledge, let us remember how knowing happens in the body. It's really an ongoing dialogue between our heart and our mind. Research in neurocardiology shows that the heart and the brain are in constant communication. Our emotional state directly shapes how clearly we think, perceive, and relate. When we experience emotions like appreciation and care or steadiness, the body shifts into what is called a state of coherence. Our understanding of coherence is grounded in decades of research on the connection between the heart, the brain, and the nervous system. And it's used globally as a practical tool for resilience and performance. In this coherent state, the heart's rhythms become more ordered, and that signal supports the brain in functioning more effectively. People often describe this as clearer thinking, greater resilience, and increased access to insight. And this is not abstract. These are practices being used across the world already. In schools, it helps students regulate attention and improve learning. In health care, it supports stress reduction and recovery. In business and leadership, it improves clarity and decision-making. And in high-stress environments, like military and emergency response, it's used to help people stay steady and effective under pressure. For so many of us, this may feel something familiar, like the quiet calm that we enter in through prayer, like insights during quiet reflection, or the connection that you feel with nature. It's the state of being in which our thinking, our feeling, and our attention are all coherently aligned. And this is something we're naming. It's simple, but it's powerful. It's something we can learn to access easily through practice. Mhm. And so natural, I bet we can already do it. Let's try it together. >> Okay. >> I'll guide you guys through a quick coherence technique. Let's see what we feel. Okay. So, there's no need to do anything really. Just notice, where are you? How do your feet feel on the ground? Turn your attention inward. How are you feeling right now? It's just a notice. I invite you to focus your attention on your heart. If you feel comfortable, place your hand on your heart. Maybe close your eyes if that feels good. To direct your inner attention to your heart. Tell your heart thank you for its life-sustaining labor. Bring to mind something or someone that brings you joy. Brings you peace. Hold them in your heart. I invite you now to slow your breathing down a little. Imagine you're breathing in and out through your heart. Feel the swell of your breath calming the heart and the nervous system both. Like giving yourself a hug from the inside. Take two slow, deep breaths like that through your heart. Feel yourself relax. Mhm. Now, heart feeling. Bring to your mind that something you care about that brings you joy, a person, a place, a moment. See if you can fill your heart with that special feeling that makes your heart smile. Feel the appreciation for that special connection and breathe it into your heart. Can you feel that? That calm inside your body? Mhm. This is what we mean by a coherent shift. When that peaceful feeling is there, it fills you up and that is the shine. Mhm. Did you feel that? >> Yes. >> Mhm. >> I [clears throat] did. >> I can see everyone is shining more brightly. Now, check in again. How are you feeling now? Are you any different? What's different? What just happened is simple. By slowing your breath and bringing in that feeling of gratitude, even for a brief moment, you've shifted your body out of that stress response and into that more coherent state where the heart and the brain and the nervous system work together. You did quite literally just shift and shine. We also just shifted into a more creative way of thinking. You may notice that you feel more open to new information different perspectives. All right, Om Raya. I think we're ready to see what's next. >> Thank you, Cat. In our experience, insight doesn't come from information alone. It tends to emerge when a few conditions come together. Attention, emotional coherence, curiosity, and shared inquiry. You'll notice those conditions woven through everything we do today. Today, we're going to begin with something very simple, learning how to see. I'm going to show you part of an image, and I want you to just notice what you see. No interpretation yet. What do you notice? Now, look a little closer. What do you see? What might this be? There's no right answer here. How have your interpretations changed based on more information? And now the full image. What has happened to your thinking? >> You moved through a process. Observation, hypothesis, revision, and insight. That's a knowledge-generating process. So, here's what we're exploring. Art is not only a way of expressing what we already know. It's a way of coming to know. It helps us to see relationships, surface what's implicit, integrate different forms of understanding. We often talk about science and religion. Science helps us understand what is happening. Religion helps us understand why it matters. And what we're proposing is art helps us see relationships and possibilities within those realities. >> There's a passage from the Gleanings from the writings of Bahaullah that says, "Every created thing in the whole universe is but a door leading into His knowledge, a sign of His sovereignty, a revelation of His names." Interestingly, scientists have expressed something similar. That a profound and exhaustive study of science reveals the immense order, the complexity, and the inherent intelligibility of creation. This deep insight into the structure of the universe leads the observer back to a sense of awe, or recognition of a greater, even divine reality. Arts cultivates the perception that allows us to see meaning in creation. It can also create by itself profound experiences associated with the numinous. Those moments that suggest the presence of divinity. So, there's a shared idea that reality contains meaning. But perceiving that meaning requires training our attention. That's where art comes in. When these systems are working together, science gives us clarity, religion gives us purpose, and art helps us see how these things are connected. In organizations, that ability to perceive relationships is often what's missing. >> The Universal House of Justice describes the arts as a means of generating joy, strengthening unity, disseminating knowledge, and consolidating understanding. So, the arts aren't peripheral. They are part of how communities learn. >> And this is where ACT comes in. ACT is Arts Integrated Creativity Training. It is a structured way of using using artistic processes to explore real questions. So, it's not just art for art's sake, but it is a method of inquiry. We're going to try a short version of that in a moment. But first, here's a very simple example of arts integrated instruction. >> In a middle school science class studying ecosystems, students might create a visual food web using simple symbols and arrows. Plants, insects, birds, predators. And then they explain how the energy moves through that system. What's interesting here is that by constructing the diagrams themselves and discussing it with the classmates, students often begin noticing relationships and dependencies that they might not have recognized through reading alone. Or imagine a biology classroom. Students are grouped together and asked to create a short skit in which each student becomes a different part of a plant or an animal cell. One student becomes a nucleus, another becomes a mitochondria, another becomes the cell membrane. As they act out the functions of the cell, the rest of the class tries to guess each part. The goal isn't performance for its own sake. The creative process helps the students understand relationships, systems, and function through embodied experience and helps them remember that concept. Think about that jingle from an advertisement you saw in childhood that you still remember. My bologna has a first name. >> That's arts-integrated instruction. An act builds on this tradition. Not simply to support engagement, but to help individuals, groups, generate insight through creative inquiry. Now, let's practice it ourselves. This activity sharpens perception. Remember the exercise earlier, the one with the wave? We were walking through the steps of observation, hypothesis, revision, and insight. Now, I want you to go out and find something to write on, like a blank index card or a piece of paper and a pencil and pen. You can pause the video while you find find something. Okay, have you found something? Now, I want you to think of a real question from your work, something you've actively trying to understand. And then I want you to represent that question visually on your paper. Use simple shapes or symbols. No words, just focus on relationships. This one on the slide, for example, represents a workplace or organizational dilemma involving competing priorities between financial performance, operational pressure, human well-being, and insight or awareness. But really, keep it as simple as you need to. You'll have 5 minutes to draw. You can set your own timer, or you can just pause the video. >> So, now that you've finished your drawing, we've explored the idea that art can help us generate new understanding. We'd like to invite you to experience that for yourself. Whether you're watching this alone or with someone else, you'll have an opportunity to move through the same cycle we've been discussing: observation, hypothesis, revision, insight. If you're watching with another person, I'll give them give instructions for working together. And if you're watching on your own, simply pause the video when invited, and we'll describe what you can do. So, turn to your partner and share your drawing. For the next 3 minutes, your partner will simply make observations. The The observer will respond with what they notice, or what they feel, or what seems significant. The artist simply listens. Don't explain your drawing. Don't defend it. Just notice what you hear. >> As you're observing your partner's drawing, remember your role is not to solve the problem. It's simply to notice and be curious. Try to remain in observation mode before moving into interpretation. You notice the details. Notice the relationships. Notice what draws your attention. Often, the most valuable begin with careful observation rather than immediate analysis. Okay. So, pause the video for about 3 minutes. When you're ready, start the video again. Now, the artist has 3 minutes to respond. You may respond with what surprised you or what felt really accurate. What helped you see your question differently? Pause the video again for 3 minutes while you visit. When you're ready, start the video again. >> Finally, switch roles and repeat the process. Pause the video whenever you're ready. And then start it when you're ready to come back. Now, if you're watching this presentation on your own, we'd like to invite you into a slightly different version of the exercise. Place your drawing where you can look at it from a distance. Take a slow breath in and out. Now, imagine that you're seeing the drawing for the first time. Ask yourself, "What do I notice? What emotions does it evoke? What seems significant? What questions arise?" Write down whatever comes to mind on the back of your picture or on a journal. Don't judge it, just observe. And when you're finished, ask yourself one final question. "What is this drawing trying to teach me that I didn't know before?" Take a few minutes to reflect on that. In your journal or on the back drawing. And then continue the presentation. Let's come back together again. So, what shifted in your understanding? Did you see something you hadn't seen before? Let's sit with this idea. The arts didn't communicate the knowledge, it generated it. While this was a very basic example of the process, it does demonstrate our proposition. That the arts are an important system of knowledge we can draw upon in our professional, personal, and community life. >> What you just experienced follows a familiar pattern. Observation, hypothesis, revision, and insight. But instead of analyzing your question, you engaged with it creatively. And that generated new understanding. Artistic inquiry follows a cycle like scientific discovery. And it is also like that familiar humble posture of learning that includes study, consultation, action, and reflection that we're all familiar with. >> So, what does this mean for organizations or for communities? In organizations, it means that learning becomes more experiential. Teams can generate insights together. And complex problems can become more navigable. Creativity will support consultation and decision-making. >> And in communities, it strengthens shared understanding. It encourages protagonism, moving from completing a course to applying concepts to our lives and our service. It builds collective creativity and unity with the diversity of thought. >> So, we'll leave the you with this. Observation begins the process. Creativity deepens understanding. Consultation generates shared insight. And ultimately, art does not simply communicate knowledge. It generates it. >> We would love to hear your thoughts. Where might this kind of knowing be needed in your work? Or what questions or reflections are coming up for you? We also have a bibliography available for your reference if you'd like to have one. >> So, we'd like to close with saying thank you so much for watching our video. We would love to hear from you. Please reach out and connect with us for more information.