Combining creative and critical thinking in research

On Tuesday evening 29 October, I gave a keynote address to the Max Planck Queensland Centre for the Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices on the topic of using creative writing techniques as part of conducting and communicating research. 

This centre is 'a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Potsdam), the Max Planck Institute of Intelligent Systems (Stuttgart) and the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane...[formed to] investigate questions around the composition and order of extracellular matrices. Extracellular matrices are not animate and provide support for cells. They react to changing environmental conditions and store information that then activates or inhibits the growth of cells.' (Source)

For me, the keynote represented an opportunity to further develop and share my ideas about how creative writing and other fields can be used together to tackle questions and topics that are difficult to approach through scientific or creative tools alone: where aspects of both are needed together. This is a growing area of methodological inquiry worldwide, and one I have explored in other contexts, too, such as in collaborations with medical practitioners in the field of Narrative Medicine, as well as in the use of storytelling techniques as a form of literary-historical study, particularly in the case of the medieval Icelandic sagas.

On Tuesday, the audience consisted of an international group of people working in innovative areas of natural science who, I sensed, were also very open to the idea of using creative writing tools and the different modes of thinking they enable.

(Picture: Max Planck Queensland Centre)

(Picture: Max Planck Queensland Centre)