A Humanbecoming Perspective on Art and Sciencing

Art and Sciencing

Parse (1992) described art as the cocreation of something unique. Uniqueness arises from the “knowledge base and cherished beliefs of the artist” (Parse, 1992, p. 147). This knowledge base is described as the “science of the art” (Parse, 1992, p. 147). For example, a Parse scholar would explain that their knowledge base is the humanbecoming paradigm (Parse, 2021). For a Parse scholar, the art of coming to know and understand a phenomenon is elucidated as sciencing (Parse, 2001). It is a way of inquiry that specifies “knowing as the continuous incarnating of the unfamiliar with the familiar” (Parse, 2001, p. 1). Sciencing from the humanbecoming perspective is made clear as “ongoing, indivisible, unpredictable, everchanging coming to know” (Parse, 2016, p. 271).

Within the humanbecoming investigative tradition, there are two modes of inquiry: Parsesciencing and humanbecoming hermeneutic sciencing (Parse, 2016). The purpose of both of these modes of inquiry is to “enhance understanding of universal humanuniverse living experiences” (Parse, 2016, p. 273). A universal humanuniverse experience is an experience that is lived by all individuals in the becoming visible-invisible becoming of the emerging now. Examples of these experiences include feeling overwhelmed, feeling listened to, and feeling surprised. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections within art and sciencing as well as to provide relevant examples of artforms that have been used by Parse scholars in formal inquiry.

Parsesciencing and Artforms: Examples

With Parsesciencing (Parse, 2016), one of the facets of heuristic interpreting is artistic expression. Parse (2016) defined artistic expression as the “scholar’s personal choice of an artform to express their experience with the Parsesciencing at hand” (p. 274). For example, in a Parsesciencing inquiry on persevering, Bigler-Perrotin and Maillard Struby (2022) chose Signac’s (1895) Saint-Tropez, The Storm to illustrate their core ideas. Their description of Signac’s use of the inflated sail described as “pushing-resisting through striking currents” illuminates the core idea of restrictive barriers in the phenomenon of persevering (Bigler-Perrotin & Maillard Struby, 2022). From another artistic viewpoint, PetersonLund and Bunkers (2018), in a Parsesciencing inquiry on suffering, shared their artistic expression through the sacred ceremony of the Sundance. As the authors described, “The Sundancer suffers stoically while being pierced in the chest by carved wooden pegs” (PetersonLund & Bunkers, 2018, p. 44). This vivid description sheds further light on the universal humanuniverse living experience of suffering. In a similar vein, sacred art has also been used by Parse scholars to reveal more about living experiences. Kabigting (2021), in a Parsesciencing inquiry on feeling overwhelmed, selected Manet’s (1864) The Dead Christ With Angels as his artistic expression. Kabigting (2021) pointed out, in describing his core idea of arduous burdensome discomfort, that a serpent is “quietly seen creeping out beneath the rocks” (p. 284). The choice of Manet to include the serpent and the manner in which the serpent is present revealed much about feeling overwhelmed.

Feeling Overwhelmed and Art

In a Parsesciencing inquiry on feeling overwhelmed, the scholar contemplated the use of myriad artforms (Kabigting, 2021) and an example from the performing arts with this phenomenon is provided here. The 2017 Tony Awards performance of “Waving Through a Window” from the musical Dear Evan Hansen shows feeling overwhelmed (Kirshner & Weiss, 2017). It begins with the character Evan Hansen on the stage alone surrounded by various images and messages from social media. Evan portrayed by Ben Platt is seen closing his eyes. As he sang each line, he breathed heavily. Evan stated that he was on the “outside always looking in.” He questions: “Will I ever be more than I’ve always been?” Evan described waving through a window. He attempted to speak but he felt that no one could hear him. In this scene, Evan envisioned the possibilities before him as he felt alone and continually doubted himself. The song escalated and led to a frenzy where Evan was surrounded by various friends and family, and he continually repeated: “When you’re fallen in a forest and there’s nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?” In this scene, he referenced his attempt at committing suicide by falling from a tree. Evan demonstrated his sureness-unsureness by saying “Did I make a sound? It’s like I never made a sound.” He finally lamented “Will I ever make a sound?” Evan was referencing whether he would be able to get outside of his metaphorical window and face the challenges ahead. He ended the song by singing loudly “Is anybody waving back at me?” and he showed that he was still alone despite everyone surrounding him. He looked out into the distance and envisioned what could be. Ultimately, Evan chose to feel overwhelmed and paralyzed himself in this decision. Readers who are interested in learning more about the author’s newknowings on feeling overwhelmed are directed to Kabigting (2021).

Artsciencing

As art and sciencing have been discussed, it is equally important to discuss Parse’s conceptualization of artsciencing. In 2022, Parse (2022) incarnated the creative conceptualization known as artsciencing. As Parse (2022) discussed, artsciencing arose from discussions on the life of a scholar and ideas surrounding scholarly work. By its definition, artsciencing is a “scholarly endeavor to advance knowledge requiring deep contemplation to ascetically expose the thought-unknown known in a seamless web of insight” (Parse, 2022, p. 393). Parse (2022) explicated that living artsciencing requires the following: “1. a strong theoretical knowledge base; 2. precision in use of language; 3. unbounded imagining; and 4. comfort with ambiguity” (p. 393). An example of artsciencing is Parse’s seminal work, Man-living-health: A theory of nursing (Parse, 1981). This endeavor, while scientific, was all-at-once creative in its inception and continues to have implications for the discipline. The incarnation of this work merits all of the requirements of artsciencing and should be regarded as an exemplar for other scholars to follow.

Coda

Scholars from the humanbecoming paradigm have used varying artistic expressions to share their meaning of universal humanuniverse living experiences. These myriad artistic expressions, which are an aspect of every Parsesciencing mode of inquiry, fortify knowledge within the humanbecoming paradigm and, by extension, the discipline of nursing itself. Readers are directed to Kabigting and Shaughnessy’s (2022) review of humanbecoming literature for more examples of artistic expressions used in the humanbecoming paradigm. As Parse (1992) concluded, the art must “reflect the science of nursing, not some other science” (p. 147). May we continue to fortify our discipline for years as scholars with our sciencing and artsciencing.