The project Artification and Its Impact on Art deals with the phenomenon that can be called artification. The neologism refers to situations and processes in which something that is not regarded as art in the traditional sense of the word is changed into art or into something art-like. Changes may happen on the conceptual-linguistic, institutional, and art-practice level, and the main question of the project is how artification may affect art on each of the three.

The possibilities of spreading artistic ways of thinking and acting outside art per se have repeatedly been mentioned by various writers during the last decades. The typical point of departure is that there is both art and non-art, and when certain aspects of art (e.g., creativity) are applied to some non-art context, this non-art context (e.g., marketing, education, or scientific research) benefits from this.  However, often even the central points of departure remain rather unclear in such texts. What is meant by the word art? What kinds of aspect of art can be used and where? Is there any method to prove that applying art actually improves, say, marketing?

Moreover, many writers are eager to ponder – even if not necessarily able to show – what happens to areas that become artified. For example, what happens to business or health care practices when they get affected by some kind of art?

But what is hardly ever touched upon is what happens to art in such processes, even if art is one of the central fields of culture, being a part of elementary education and a constituent of personal and national identities. This, however, is the main focus of this project: how art itself – both applied and traditional art – may change through such processes? And how these changes show in ways of discussing about art (conceptual level), in art institutions (education, museums, etc.) and in art practices?

Thus, the purpose of the project is to clarify the central tenets of the contemporary artification discourse by especially focusing on the impacts such processes have on art. This is done by analyzing writings and processes where artification is dealt with or carried through. The core hypothesis is that changes that affect the arts are really taking place. These changes, however, should be understood better than they now are.

Four intertwining points of view are used: conceptual analysis from the point of view of philosophical aesthetics, art history analysis, institutional analysis from the point of view of cultural politics and art education, and art-practice analysis from the point of view of art education and art profession. The special focus is on visual arts.

The results will be presented as scientific articles and monographs, and can be used in further art research as well as in developing art education and policy. As the phenomenon is international, so will the results be internationally useful.

The project will be carried out in three Finnish universities in 2009–2012: University of Art and Design Helsinki, University of Joensuu and University of Jyväskylä.