In the arts abductive reasoningis used to produce the best possible interpretation of a piece of visual art. The same arts reasoning may be applied to investigate ‘sustainability’ where the precision of a deductive conclusioninvolving experimentation is not possible.
"Electricity is not only present in a magnificent thunderstorm and dazzling lightning, but also in a lamp; so also, creativity exists not only where it creates great historical works, but also everywhere human imagination combines, changes, and creates anything new." Lev Vygotsky, 1930/1967, cited in Smolucha, 1992, p. 54
Innovation and creativity are fundamental to all academic disciplines and educational activities, not just the arts. The creative process, as with reflection, is a critical component of making sense of learning experiences.