daved barry, phd

Welcome!   Here, you'll find some of my writings, pictures, and contact details. A bit about my work.   I consider myself to be a 'creative at work', someone who is keenly interested in improving worklife and organizational effectiveness using aesthetically-centred, arts-based means.  For me, aesthetics and 'arts-based' encompasses a lot of things.  Twenty years ago, when I first started this line of inquiry, I took it to mean painting and drawing,  re-presenting work life through the lenses of canvas and paper.  Since moving from the States to New Zealand, to Copenhagen, and now to Lisbon (Nova University)  pictures led to words (e.g., narrative studies), which led to more words (e.g., discourse studies, literary studies), and yet more words (dramatistic applications, film), and finally, more pictures (my recent work with visual artists, innovation, and artistic cognition). These days, 'arts-based' has come to mean a certain way of knowing for me, a creative way of grasping things that is 'sens-ibly' different from the rational, logical, deductive.  Aesthetics are implicitly a big part of arts-based approaches, as are invention, social construction, symbolism, context, and culture.

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I am applying my understandings and approaches in an increasing number of ways.  Teaching continues to be one route -- most of the courses I've taught have a strong emphasis on organizational creativity and aesthetics. In 2007, I will be teaching an MBA course called "The Art of Management", which asks "Can managers and leaders be artists at work?" I also work with Learning Lab Denmark, where I initiated and developed a European Masters program in innovation and leadership (LAICS). And I continue to work with the Copenhagen Business School as an adjunct professor there.  A very important part of my work is AACORN (Arts, Aesthetics, Creativity, and Organization Research Network), a global group that I co-founded while I was in New Zealand. AACORN has become a major forum for sharing and developing arts-in-business research. Lastly, I write about this area; I've posted some of my articles on this site. I hope you find this site helpful, and let me know if you're working in, or interested in working in creative, arts-based ways.

home  •  articles & works-in-progress •  contact details This website is maintained by Daved Barry.  The site and all its materials are copyrighted (2007).