How can art deepen inquiry at a business school? What kind of knowledge does it produce, and what do we lose when we try to translate artistic experience into measurable outcomes?  

These were the guiding questions when House of Innovation hosted a discussion on art as a source of inquiry, bringing together faculty, PhD students, and artists-in-residence Jacob Felländer and Molly Grad. 

Rather than a traditional seminar, the session ran as an “unconference.” Participants pitched their own questions, the agenda formed itself in the room, and three working groups took shape around the themes that generated the most engagement. 

Scholars and staff got together at the House of Innovation to discuss art in higher education. Photo: Majlin Skjetne

The artistic paradox 

Opening the conversation, Emma Bell, Professor in Leadership at the Stockholm School of Economics, reflected on what she calls the artistic paradox: by translating art into peer-reviewed knowledge, do we strip it of the very qualities (mystery, polysemy, and embodied experience) that make it valuable as a mode of inquiry?  

Visual methods, she argued, give organization studies a way to think about materiality, imagination, and the senses that language alone cannot.  

Imagination is not decorative; it is “productive of being different,” and we need it to think honestly about possible futures, including those we fear and those we hope for. 

Participants used a flexible format that encouraged open discussion and collaboration. Photo: Majlin Skjetne

Why management tools are also aesthetic 

Paolo Quattrone, Professor of Accounting, Governance and Society at Alliance Manchester Business School, drew on the dashboard used to manage the delivery of Heathrow Terminal 5 to argue that even ordinary management artifacts have aesthetic dimensions.  

Inspired by Byzantine icons and the medieval idea of polyfocality, the dashboard was framed not as a representation of a project but as a device for generating tension, debate, and the user’s own imaginative connections.  

Accounting, the argument went, has always sat at the intersection of science, religion, and magic. Luca Pacioli, often called the “father of accounting,” also wrote about games and the magic of numbers, and we still speak of “squaring the books.” 

After discussing in smaller groups, the participants came together to exchange insights. Photo: Majlin Skjetne

The three working groups then took the conversation in different directions: 

1. Intentions 
   What are we actually trying to do when we bring art into a business school? One suggestion was to expect less and experience more. If we evaluate art using standard business-school metrics, we lose what it offers. 
   
   
2. Knowledge 
   What does art produce that other forms of inquiry cannot, and is the artist’s question (“what does it mean to be here, now?”) a needed counterweight to instrumental ways of knowing? 
   
   
3. Methods 
   How do we research using all the senses instead of only visual and linguistic? Could scent, sound, and embodied experience be legitimate research methods, and is there a place for the nonsensical in academic work? 

A recurring theme across the groups was that, as AI reshapes what counts as creative labor, embodied, sensory, and distinctly human capacities matter more, not less.  

Several participants discussed whether art reflects a renewed interest in spirituality and enchantment in schools that, at least over the past half-century, have been built on rational and secular foundations. 

What happens next? 

Participants expressed a shared interest in continuing to explore how artistic practice, sensory experience, and imagination can contribute to research and teaching at a business school.

The discussions are expected to develop further after the summer break, through more collaborations, experiments, and new forms of inquiry across disciplines. 

Interested in learning more about art and innovation at SSE? Contact:

Professor Roberto Verganti
Josefsson Family Chair in Art and Innovation
Director, Initiative on Art and Innovation

Email: Roberto.Verganti@hhs.se 

The conversations on art in higher education will continue after the summer break. Photo: Majlin Skjetne