This panel looks at strategies that have been used over the last 10 years at Virginia Commonwealth University and elsewhere to develop projects in the third space between arts and healthcare. Issues addressed will include creating work with no existing blueprint and the resultant narrative difficulty of explaining it to wider audiences; structural, logistical, and philosophical issues of working between departments; and internal political considerations for funding toward sustainability. Please note this video has low sound issues

This panel discusses the challenges and successes of developing a web-based interactive tool with an interdisciplinary collective, relating to the life, travels, performances, cultural context and repetoire of the 19th century actor Ira Aldridge. Topics include creating meaningful relationships through database construction; photographic and reproduction rights for public internet tools; developing interactive visualizations to teach history; effective use of student workers and preserving ephemeral performance events.

What is the future of funding for arts and interdisciplinary efforts in higher education? This lively panel discusses the issues.

This presentation explores an OSU case study in which the College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences worked together on actualizing a work of art by acclaimed artist Chris Burden.

What is the future of arts-integrative interdisciplinarity in higher education? This lively panel discusses the issues.

The University of Akron Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center (BRIC) is an initiative dedicated to the advancement of innovation inspired by nature. The work of BRIC is to align the creative ideas of scientists, engineers, artists, and entrepreneurs to catalyze invention, and partners with corporate and non-profit sectors to develop a capacity for biomimicry research, education, and entrepreneurship. Along with discussing BRIC, this session also highlights the Synapse event series, which probes the ideas, images, and mutual interests connecting art and science professionals and disciplines.

Horst Rittel argues that the problems design handles are wicked (as well as incorrigible and ill-behaved) and new methodologies are required to tame them (Rittel and Webber 1973). He lists some of the key characteristics of these problems: they are very difficult to formulate, they do not have right or wrong solutions, they do not have a logical end, and they are often symptoms of other problems. In such situations, the only way to devise comprehensive solutions to deal with them is through an intense and integrated collaboration among disciplines. Interdisciplinarity is one of the most promising strategies for dealing with and taming the wicked, ill-behaved and incorrigible problems of design.

And while interdisciplinary collaboration offers the benefits of the possibility of more comprehensive solutions, shared resources and costs, better problem prediction, and so on, it also poses challenges. Dealing with diverse disciplinary philosophies and vocabularies, managing heterogeneous teams, managing project complexity, acquiring resources and other issues present considerable hurdles.

In this presentation, the authors offer an analysis of interdisciplinary collaboration, explain its role in university pedagogy, and describe some of the benefits it offers as well as the challenges it poses. They discuss a number of undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary curricular experiences that range from 10 days to two semesters, involving students and faculty from Fine Arts, Architecture, Biology, Business, Engineering, Industrial Design, and Visual Communication Design. These case studies serve as examples of interdisciplinarity that can help shape the future of education.

A wide range of STEAM collaborations on a variety of platforms are discussed, including strengths, limitations, and ways of developing initiatives. Presenters review past accomplishments, identify present challenges, and articulate future goals for effectively bringing together people from STEM disciplines with experts in the arts. How does one go about creating effective habitats for cutting-edge intersections of art and science? What models are out there? What new models might we wish for and design?

Instruction in creativity develops habits of work, introspection, entrepreneurship, a willingness to take risks, and fosters collaboration. These are some of the dispositional outcomes found in a study of undergraduate arts students who completed a course in creativity and innovation at ASU. Presenters discuss elements of course design, how this course fits into the greater context of a major arts institute, and specific outcomes of the course

This presentations will explore strategies for initiating a meaningful two-way trade between art and other disciplines within research institutions through a variety of case studies that involve curricular and co-curricular activities, MOUs, “collaboratories,” incubators, and non-disciplinary “agnostic” spaces.