Employing the Arts in Research as an Analytical Tool and Dissemination Method: Interpreting Experience Through the Aesthetic

The process to knowing entails perpetual curiosity as well as wearied surrender in which one’s understandings transform. This philosophy describes the approach that our team took to research, interpret and exhibit patients’ narratives of open-heart surgery in “The 7,024th Patient” project – an arts-informed, narrative study that resulted in an installation that is 1,739 square feet in area and over 9 feet in height. With the intention to physically and emotionally engage viewers, patients’ stories were aesthetically translated into an installation of poetry and photography that was configured as a winding, labryinth-like path. In this article, we recount the journey of creating “The 7,024th Patient” exhibition illustrating the employment of the arts as a tool in research for acquiring understanding. In order to vividly highlight our journey, poetic excerpts and photographic images from the installation are embedded.