It’s hard to conceive of work as art although for many art is work. But I’d like you to consider that knowledge workers approach their daily tasks as an artist approaches their media: more “procedural” than “process” leading to an end result unique in approach and the nuance of outcome. So given that art is in the eye of the beholder, it stands to reason that many types of work can be considered art or at least the knowledge worker as artistic.
Art is defined by Merriam-Webster as “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings”
Work is defined Merriam-Webster as an “activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something; a sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result; the labor, task, or duty that is one’s accustomed means of livelihood; a specific task, duty, function, or assignment often being a part or phase of some larger activity”
Unfortunately, the industrial age heralded the birth of the assembly line and contributed more to the stagnation of knowledge work as art than any other single contributing factor. Business Process Re-engineering efforts of the 1980s and 90s further compounded this stagnation by automating business processes with workflow and content management software into pre-fixed methods. Almost everything was looked at through a process-centric lens.
Recently, the rise of Dynamic Case Management solutions has allowed for procedurally oriented work to be automated; giving the knowledge worker the latitude to work how and where they want but still within the confines of government regulation and/or corporate governance in order to lead to the best possible outcome and ultimately improve productivity.
Confucius is credited with saying “when you do what you love you never work a day in your life.” Is this not another form of art?
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