Jungian arts-based research (JABR) means making knowledge through creativity, the imagination and the unknown psyche or the unconscious. The resulting art interacts with the wisdom of centuries materialized in art traditions. JABR art practice can include writing novels or poetry, painting, sculpture, filmmaking, photography, internet games, garden design, music-making or arts as yet unexplored. It has particular relevance for digital arts in terms of how technology can meet soul.

JABR weaves society, nature and the cosmos by materializing the psyche in dialogue with art and history. Synchronicities arise and archetypes are summoned into being through art-making that invokes the more than personal psyche. The artist generates more depth through depth psychology practices such as active imagination and amplification.

This talk presents JABR as a four-stage process: research paradigm, preparation with psyche, form, and genre, three, process by inviting spontaneity and the unknown; and four, projection and reflection using the completed artwork. Such creativity speaks to different cultures and generates multiple meanings, fixing none.

JABR unites the therapeutic with knowing and being. It is formational, in gathering what matters in the artist and the work, informational in finding out what is hidden, and transformational in offering new ways of being. JABR is relevant to all Pacifica Programs and is a particular feature of the MA Depth Psychology and Creativity, with an emphasis on the Arts and Humanities.