The Role of Art in Enterprise: State-of-the-art Literature Review on the Role of Art in Enterprise

The digital transformation refers to a wider range of changes brought about by digital and computing technologies across society. Artsformation aims to understand how art can be an actor in the digital transformation with the intention to harness the transformation for greater social benefit. In order to do so, this report examines how enterprises and artists have engaged with each other. The report details historical and contemporary examples grouped under three headings: residing, consulting and embedding. These headings reflect different relationships between artists and industry, ranging from those where the artist work remains separate to the business practices, to those where the artistic and business practice are indistinguishable. Through the examples the report suggests five areas of further study necessary in understanding and potentially harnessing artist industry engagement for the digital transformation. These are; understanding the intentions of each actor, navigating the asymmetric relationships that exist between actors, understanding the competing measures of success that may apply, negotiating the complex structures that dictate the rules of the collaboration and exploring the policy frameworks that can help to promote beneficial engagements. Thus, this report forms a basis to guide further research within the Artsformation project.