My goal is to implement synthesis between the disciplines of art, design, and biology. As a way of reaching this objective, a set of heuristics can be a valuable tool. My attempt is situated within a systems approach to art, which seeks to integrate the development of better decision making and other analytical strategies with creative arts behaviors. I import the heuristic concepts of relational aesthetics, boundary objects, and network entrepreneurship. These ideas of value, form, and behavioral strategy, respectively, can serve as first approximations for how to engage in the ideation and implementation of creative work. These also function as design strategies that take into account differences among disciplines. They may therefore aid in the formation of educational and organizational objectives whose aim is to find positive solutions at the interfaces of art, design, and life science.
1.1.3. Network Entrepreneurship
A third heuristic is the concept of network entrepreneurship. A network entrepreneur is someone who brokers ideas across structural holes in organization and networks (Burt 2003). Burt defines structural holes as areas of emptiness or gaps between social groups. The epistemological and methodological gap between the arts and sciences is a good example. According to Burt, individuals (and possibly groups) that provide vision advantages through network entrepreneurship can be thought of and related to as social capital. The work that these types of individuals do is based on the assumption that within group variation and the diversity of ideas is less than the variation and range of possible solutions achievable between groups.
Network entrepreneurs are positioned (or position themselves) to draw from these different sources of variation while seeking strategic design solutions.
If an individual in involved in designing a boundary object, the degree to which they engage in network entrepreneurship may increase the suitability of that object across different communities. Burt (2003) recognizes four behaviors of network entrepreneurs who engage in information arbitrage:
- Making individuals in one or both groups aware of the interests and difficulties of the other(s), and in the process, mitigate misunderstandings and confusion.
- Transferring practices that have the potential to create value from one group in another group.
- Drawing analogies between things that are seemingly irrelevant to one another.
- Synthesizing new behaviors and beliefs that combine the concerns of multiple groups.
One thing to recognize is how similar the benchmarks for interdisciplinary integration (see Wolfe and Haynes 2003) are with these brokering behaviors. It seems reasonable to consider the processes of network entrepreneurship in the context of strategies for realizing high quality interdisciplinary creative work.
Examples of network entrepreneurship abound and there are varying degrees of the behavior. Someone directly involved in cinema production may reasonably be called a network entrepreneur. Cinema, by virtue of its techniques and conventions, is a collaborative medium and dependent on the actions of individuals to create a relational aesthetic that facilitates production. Recognizing the corresponding needs of the lighting crew and the camera operators is a function of the director of photography. The motion picture is a sort of boundary object, representing the work and input from a variety of individuals, groups, and organizations. In an industrial setting, producers balance the concerns of directors and distributors. On the side of the spectator, cinema appeals to multiple audiences and provides an exceptional level of empathy for the viewer to attach oneself (Koss 2006).
For Soviet filmmaker Sergi Eisenstein, calling attention to the similarity between developing cells in a biological context was akin to his new formalist approach to film editing (Eisenstein 1949). This was a form of network entrepreneurship that facilitated communication and boundary crossing using an analogy.
For students, network entrepreneurship can take the form of an idealized set of behaviors that can facilitate the formation of new ideas.
As a principle of good practice, encouraging network entrepreneurship can communicate high expectations and promote respect for diverse talents and ways of learning.
High expectations are reinforced when standards in one group can be related to standards in another. The high currency placed on writing in the sciences, for example, may carry over into the arts if they are networked. Likewise, the emphatic respect for diversity in the arts may also carry into the sciences as multiple perspectives contribute to new
ideas.
If the goal is to build bridges between art and biology, network entrepreneurs are a key to unlocking new opportunities. By actively promoting connections and translating across these social boundaries, network entrepreneurs establish relationships and build cohesion within and between individuals.
Burt, R. S. Structural Holes and Good Ideas. American Journal of Sociology. 110: (2004). p.349–399.
Eisenstein, S, The Cinematic Principle and the Ideogram in Film Form. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1949.
Koss, J. On the Limits of Empathy. The Art Bulletin. 88: (2006). p.139-57.
Wolfe, C. R., and Haynes, C. Interdisciplinary writing assessment profiles. Issues in Integrative Studies 21: (2003). 126–169.
