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Developing a Transdisciplinary University in Finland Through Arts-Based Practices

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Arts-based Methods and Organizational Learning

Abstract

Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, is engaging in broad university initiatives around art and creative practices that offer access to arts-based theory and production for all students through transdisciplinary courses, exhibition spaces and art events across campus. In this chapter, we explore the theoretical framework for the development and implementation of these initiatives. Within this framework, we provide examples of how university pedagogy functions at the limits of disciplines, offering an opportunity for thinking and activities that might not (yet) be possible within the traditions of the dominant disciplines. We discuss in detail how one initiative creates new pedagogical approaches to higher education and encourages experimentation and exploration through arts-based methods and methodologies. Lastly, we discuss a critical, self-reflexive approach to university pedagogy, where our present understanding of art and design is problematized and transformed by other disciplines, and the emergence of completely new areas of inquiry and practice.

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Tavin, K., Tervo, J., Löytönen, T. (2018). Developing a Transdisciplinary University in Finland Through Arts-Based Practices. In: Chemi, T., Du, X. (eds) Arts-based Methods and Organizational Learning . Palgrave Studies in Business, Arts and Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63808-9_11

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