For centuries, the pursuit of knowledge has led to significant progress and upheaval. However, are the processes of knowledge expansion becoming less disruptive?

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In “Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time,” Park, Leahey and Funk sought to evaluate the state of science by analysing patterns in published papers and patents. Their findings, as supported by various citation- and text-based metrics, reveal a steady decline in groundbreaking discoveries across multiple disciplines since 1945–despite more knowledge produced, we see less “Eureka” moments. In the face of rapidly increasing research output, this insight challenges us to examine the factors that contribute to this decline and explore potential ways to disrupt conventions. It reminds us that acquiring patterns and existing knowledge is essential, but we must also be open to chaos and novelty in order to foster true innovation and push the boundaries of our knowledge. Once we have mastered a pattern, we need to seek ways to break it.

K(no)wledge Kaleido(scope) raised questions about scientific progress and the patterns that govern it. This interactive spatial installation invited the audience to explore the paradoxical nature of the (contemporary) academic practices and dive deeper into this expanding matrix of (stagnating) novelty. The work could be experienced by one or a maximum of two individuals at a time. The longer the visitor interacted with the installation, the bigger the pattern would become, while increasing interactions are countered by the slowing down of pattern expansion.

 

This was a collaborative work of Pragya Jain, Sybil Liu and Xiaotian Ma. K(no)wledge Kaleido(scope) was developed under the supervision of Peter van der Putten, in the context of Science to Experience course - with special thanks to Nan Wang, Abe Arenberg, Jan Dudek and ChatGPT for their contribution.