Aesthetics as boundary work: Art, science, and the pluralisation of expert knowledge for the global governance of sustainability

Abstract Applying a Science and Technology Studies (STS) lens and building on Rancièrian philosophy and the aesthetic turn in International Relations (IR), the article explores the possibilities that the mobilisation of knowledge from the artistic field holds for the pluralisation of expert knowledge-making in the global governance of sustainable development. Is the use of aesthetic knowledge production yet another effort to ‘art-wash’ a global governance agenda? Or does the opening of such new spaces of political exchange create the opportunity for collective knowledge production and political transformation? Moving beyond examining art as an instrument of science communication, the article discusses artworks as boundary objects, facilitating multivocality, interpretative flexibility, inclusivity, timeliness, and virtual reality, all achieved within the technocratic environment of a governing agenda where datafied expertise continues to dominate. Following such ‘new modalities of reflection’, 1 the article applies case study analysis of artworks exhibited at UN COP meetings in order to explore the dynamic interdependence of policy and art as spaces of expert knowledge production and democratic politics.