Interaction in the artistic knowledge creation process: The case of artists in Finnish Lapland

Abstract

This paper contributes to the need in economic geography to understand temporal interactions and sources of new knowledge in such interactions in the knowledge creation process. The focus is on eleven international artists who live in peripheral locations in Finnish Lapland, where spatial and temporal disconnections easily evolve. The paper considers the meaning of such disconnections, as well as human–object interaction. The processes are analysed through the spatio-temporal framework of object, communicative and cognitive spaces, and linear and relational times.The empirical research into knowledge creation in economic geography lacks views of peripheries, artistic knowledge and the consideration of the process in the ‘here and now’. These views are needed to meet the challenge of understanding knowledge creation processes in various fields and contexts. The main materials of this ethnographic case study – interviews, observation and videotaping of the artists working – are analysed using content analysis.The results show the central position of objects in interactions of artistic knowledge creation. The two main modes of temporal interactions are (re)searching and (dis)connecting. In the early stages, continuous and wide (re)searching includes returning in time that addresses the framework for developing artwork. The artists living in peripheries benefit from disconnections based on geographical isolation. The moments of (dis)connections between the field and artist, object-cognitive spaces and dimensions of time are sources of new knowledge. Some connections might prevent knowledge creation. Therefore, objects, temporality and the cognitive space of interpreted messages are important to acknowledge when studying interactive knowledge creation.