This research paper focuses on the linkage between knowledge through art and interdisciplinary design and development processes that can be fuelled and leveraged by art. The research introduces a conceptualization of the Value Wheel within the new interdisciplinary pedagogical and operational model (Haapaniemi & Leinoen, 2023). The Value Wheel highlights how socially engaged and responsible artistic knowing processes and art-based research (ABR) methodologies including performative inquiry and drama pedagogy, can serve as catalysts for meaning-making in complex interdisciplinary development projects and educational ecosystems and integrate broader societal stakeholders, such as enterprises or youngsters at schools. 

The Value Wheel explains the nwly estblished pivotal role of knowing through art, art-based research methods (ABR) and explaines the possible roles of art in RDI development projects and in interdisciplinary meaning-making processes in both development work and design university context. 

Art-based methods act as disruptors, crystallizers, and stimulants in educational and developmental processes. They spark curiosity, invite emotional engagement, and embrace the unknown through metaphor, collision, and creative friction. These elements open new perspectives and allow participants to dwell in liminal spaces – transitional states where transformation begins. Such states are vital in navigating and managing the ambiguity and emergence inherent in interdisciplinary design projects.

Art functions as a powerful medium for communication, expression, and knowledge creation across multiple disciplines. Depending on the situation, project and utility it plays a therapeutic role, contributes to development processes, and engages in social discourse through diverse forms and methods. Knowledge through art is generated via socially responsible and socially engaged art methodologies to integrate broader societal stakeholders.
Art fosters empathy and inclusiveness: value-based understanding, emphasizing the societal and cultural significance of art.

Art as communication and expression: Art conveys messages, ideas, and emotions in various forms, serving as a vital tool for communication and personal expression.

Powerful narratives: Different art forms, methods, and materials act as communication tools, creating and emphasizing worlds of meaning and values, including through new media, interactive spaces, and the fusion of design, art, and technology.

Interdisciplinary knowledge and development: Art supports research and knowledge production within multidisciplinary models. Knowing through art can be integrated into development processes to drive change.

Socially responsible art enhances engagement and participation: Community art, socially responsible art and artwork engage with societal processes, promoting community, empathy, and understanding. This interaction reflects strategic values guiding individuals and organizations. 
A transformation is taking place in what is taken as truth, objectivity and validity (Camargo-Borges, 2025). Also a broader movement in qualitative research seeks to expand the boundaries of what counts as knowledge (Leavy, 2025). The epistemological approaches of art refer to experiential, propositional and co-created each providing different criteria for evaluating and assessing knowledge construction in terms of its quality and validity (Camargo-Borges, 2025; Leavy, 2025). The arts offer unique modes of understanding that are experiential, interpretive, and deeply contextual (Eisner, 2008). Art forms do not merely illustrate knowledge but actively generate it through their capacity to evoke, represent, and transform human experience. Knowing through art disrupts power dynamics and facilitates futures visioning (Heras et al., 2021, Fells 2018). Art functions as a transformative medium that cultivates self‑understanding, empathy, and critical reflection by challenging entrenched schemas and supporting personal and interpersonal growth (Sherman & Morrissey, 2017).
How can company value mapping via ABR and knowing through art contribute to utilising values management for shifting companies to circular economy and systemic change. 
The Value Wheel has been designed via Action Research principles (Somekh, 2012) and iterated in two international RDI projects in university context. It is scalable, tranferrable and applicaple to various types of contexts from business and organisational to educational. 

Action research (Somekh, 2012) in designing the Value Wheel in iterations within two RDI projects. Art-based research (ABR), art workshops, performative inquiry and drama pedagogy utilized in generating rich qualitative materials that constitute to value creation through artistic means. This generated material serves as research data and output of the value mappings via art. Teams cycle through Observe–Plan–Act–Reflect phases with both creative arts exercises and design prototyping tasks intertwined (Haapaniemi & Leinonen, 2023).

A visualization that conceptualizes the Value Wheel with two blades: one that generates knowledge through art and ABR and the other with co-design and design briefs. The two blades spin as the process progresses. The right blade consists of interdisciplinary co-design processes in four Design Briefs representing the four parallel inquiry tracks undertaken by the teams. Each design brief focuses on creating tangible, digital and experiential outcomes with prototypes. The left blade generates value-laden narratives through art. This side represents all the preparatory arts-based interventions – such as drama workshops, storytelling sessions, and visual art exercises – that occur before and alongside design ideation. The goal is to create rich narrative material infused with human values. At the center of the Value Wheel is a “value circle” or hub where the two blades intersect. This hub represents the iterative innovation cycle and shared learning that happen when art and design integrate. As teams work, the wheel keeps turning and crystallized artistic knowing and created stories to inform design concepts, and as designs take shape, new questions arise that may be fed back as prompts for more art-based exploration. The Value Wheel model tolerates ambiguity and encourages iteration. It concretely links art-based activities with interdisciplinary co-design iterations so that artists, designers, technologists, sustainability experts and all involved are essentially co-creating from start to finish.

Appadurai, A. (2023). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. In Postcolonlsm (pp. 1801-1823). Routledge. Cieciuch, J. (2017). Exploring the complicated relationship between values and behaviour. In Values and behavior: Taking a cross cultural perspective (pp. 237-247). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Dekker, E., & Morea, V. (2023). Realizing the values of art. Cham: Springer. Eisner, E. (2008). Art and knowledge. Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues, 4. Eyal, T., Sagristano, M. D., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Chaiken, S. (2009). When values matter: Expressing values in behavioral intentions for the near vs. distant future. Journal of experimental social psychology, 45(1), 35-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.023 Haapaniemi, H., & Leinonen, T. (2023). Towards a Pedagogical Model Applying Commedia dell’Arte and Art Workshops in Higher Education Design Studies. Open Education Studies, 5(1), 20220199. Leavy, P. (Ed.) (2025), Handbook of Arts-Based Research, Guilford Publications. Manders-Huits, N. (2011). What values in design? The challenge of incorporating moral values into design. Science and engineering ethics, 17(2), 271-287. DOI: 10.1007/s11948-010-9198-2 McDougall, M., Bevan, B., & Semper, R. (2012). Art as a way of knowing. In Conference Report. San Francisco: Exploratorium. Sherman, A., & Morrissey, C. (2017). What is art good for? The socio-epistemic value of art. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 11, 411. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00411 Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Penguin. Stec, T., & Zwolinski, P. (2018). Using values management for shifting companies to circular economy. Procedia CIRP, 69, 805-809. ISSN: 2212-8271; DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2017.11.112 Straker, K., & Nusem, E. (2019). Designing value propositions: An exploration and extension of Sinek’s ‘Golden Circle’ model. Journal of Design, Business & Society, 5(1), 59-76. Sunarto, B. (2015). Basic knowledge and reasoning process in the art creation. Open Journal of Philosophy, 5(5), 285-296. DOI: 10.4236/ojpp.2015.55036 Swart, J. (2011). That’s why it matters: How knowing creates value. Management Learning, 42(3), 319-332. DOI: 10.1177/1350507610391591 Van de Poel, I. (2013). Translating values into design requirements. In Philosophy and engineering: Reflections on practice, principles and process (pp. 253-266). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. Vuyk, K. (2010). The arts as an instrument? Notes on the controversy surrounding the value of art. International journal of cultural policy, 16(2), 173-183. Yau, L. F. C. (2012). The arts in a knowledge economy: creation of other knowledges. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 3(1), 68-87. DOI: 10.1007/s13132-011-0054-7