Learning scientific creativity from the arts

Abstract Examining scientific creativity through the lens of artistic practice may allow identification of a path towards an institutional environment that explicitly values and promotes transformative creativity in science. It is our perception as an artist and natural scientist that even though creativity is valued in the sciences, it is not institutionally promoted to the same extent it is in the arts. Acknowledging creativity as acts of transformation and central to scientific pursuit, actively utilizing chance and failure in scientific experimentation, are critical for step changes in scientific knowledge. Iterative and open-ended processes should be modeled after insights from a range of practices in the visual, performing and media arts. Successful institutional implementation requires training through a long-term process of unlearning and learning, organizing interactions to critique results, designing experiments to contain trial and error, and building common and individual spaces that promote chance encounters across disciplines and with non-academic sectors. As a natural scientist and an artist, we call for bringing such a transformative creative approach into scientific practice as a guiding principle for organizational and cultural development of the university.