The Role of the Arts in the Digital Transformation

This paper explores how the arts may instil or impede change for better or for worse, drawing parallels from previous thinking on transformation achieved through the arts with the current set of challenges our society faces as part of ongoing digital transformation. We propose a set of four interrelated mechanisms through which the arts are intertwined with processes of change, finding that the arts foster empathy and a notion of care while radically empowering imagination and bestowing capabilities to act on change. We then proceed to discuss these mechanisms in the light of digital transformation and put forward a set of proposals regarding the agency of the arts. These proposals will be empirically validated and leveraged in the subsequent field work and innovation phases of the project. This overview will conclude with some key findings as well as an outlook on critical questions for future research on the potential of the arts for empowering positive change in the context of digital transformation.