This talk will trace the notion of dilettantism in the work of contemporary artists Mark Dion, Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute of Figuring, and Beatriz da Costa. These artists share a profound distrust in categorization and specialization while championing collaborations with professional scientists and civic institutions as well as what da Costa has termed ‘public amateurs’. Do such alliances between artists and scientists surrender art to the technocratic, utilitarian functionality and instrumentalism of scientific research? And to what extent do the artists’ tools and strategies of curiosity, playfulness, doubt, chance, humour, irony, and metaphor allow for an independent zone of enquiry – a place where neglected, discredited and unorthodox trajectories can be productively pursued? Measuring contemporary examples of the artist as 'professional dilettante' (Dion) against the historical figures of the polymath, amateur and curieux, the paper will assess and chart the creative, critical and political potential of ‘alternative’, artist-led research methods, knowledge production, and meaning making.