Taste as Science, Aesthetic Experience and Inquiry

This chapter explores STEAM from a transdisciplinary perspective where sense/ory experiences are made explicit in the process of teaching and learning. In dialogue with John Dewey's last complete work, Art as Experience, possibilities of engaging a wider array of sensuous perceptions in the interface between sciences and arts are explored. Two innovative teaching activities are described and discussed where taste (ambiguity intended) and acts of tasting play key roles. Theory and research-based knowledge is sought put to work, thus shedding light on possibilities and challenges for teaching of, and through, inquiry in the interface between subject domains with distinct practices and epistemologies. Through rich descriptions, looking closely and paying attention to details and specifics, simplistic and overly optimistic descriptions of STEAM initiatives are sought avoided. Departure is taken from some major challenges in science and STEM education, ultimately seeking to open a space where some challenges in arts education may also be met. Finally, challenges, frictions and the possible transformative power of such integration for the respective subjects is discussed.