The pencil case model of creativity
A PhD student reflects on the nature of creativity while struggling with her thesis. She compares the structured constraints of academic research to the seemingly freer, yet still demanding, creative work of her artist friend.
Why it matters
It explores the common struggle of finding personal fulfillment and creative identity within highly structured professional environments.
Photo: Ivar Pel Our columnist Isabella Saccardi caught herself envying a friend's creative job. But isn't academic research creative as well? "Somewhere along the way, I stopped recognising the creativity in what I was doing," she writes.
I delete the same sentence from my thesis introduction, for the twentieth time today. It feels like no combination of letters will save me: how will any of them convince a PhD assessment committee?
The ringing bell is a welcome interruption. I join my friend for a walk, happy to enjoy the three days of summer we get this year.
We wander through the canals when she stops abruptly, summons a notebook, and starts sketching the alleyways. She tells me how she can use it in her next commission: a cover for a fantasy book.
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