Poem Houses: An Arts Based Inquiry into Making a Transitional Artefact to Explore Shifting Understandings and New Insights in Presentational Knowing

This article explores an extended epistemology of knowing through a process of making and inquiring into an artefact known as a “Poem House”. The artefact can be viewed as a transitional object and the process of crafting creates a space for “negative capability” and “not knowing” opening opportunities for new insights. The focus for this inquiry was a personal one relating to difficulties and tensions surrounding the pressure to write for publication. New understandings were achieved in the original process of making and inquiring into the Poem House and then shifted significantly as a result of reforming the artefact after a period of time. This article demonstrates how pausing in and returning to presentational knowing in a critically self reflexive way is an important factor in developing deeper levels of insight into organisational issues.