Rejuvenating Radical Potential Through Transdisciplinarity

Art and Public Health

Abstract

We begin this paper with a brief overview of disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Complex problems like climate change are one area where a disciplinary approach might compromise our ability to enact radical new ways of thinking. The concept of wicked problems has been developed to describe these kinds of complex issues. We discuss the concept of wicked problems and consider how transdisciplinarity might be a way of responding to these problems. We then turn to look at the discipline of public health, interrogating its radical potential and identifying ways in which it currently falls short of this potential. Having introduced these concepts, we discuss how art and public health might meet in a transdisciplinary manner, offering some examples of artists who are already working in a way that moves towards transdisciplinarity. We finish with a caution to avoid the instrumentalisation of art in this context.