Art, Transformation and the Social Imaginary

Abstract

Art uses images, symbols, ideas, and other expressions to enable people to construct new social imaginaries that can inspire change toward a more desirable future. Artists serve as ‘seers’ of reality as it is, in ways that others do not see, and of what might be. Art can help frame and envision new cultural mythologies and social imaginaries. The ‘soft’ power of art can change perspectives, raise awareness, and foster socio-cultural change. Art’s soft power potentially provides an approach to system transformation more amenable to some than ‘hard’ power because it taps the holistic right brain’s both/and approach to system transformation.

Keywords:

• Artistic interventions
• soft power
• social imaginary
• system change
• transformation

Disclosure statement

The author declares no conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.

Data deposition

The paper is conceptual. No data are associated with this paper and links are provided to artwork mentioned.

Notes

1 Thanks to Pablo Martin de Holan for these suggestions.