BA Art History and BA Arts, Media, Society

• Knowledge:

  • Knowledge is the basis of all forms of creativity. If you want to turn a field on its head with a creative impact, you will have to comprehend the rules, assumptions and knowledge of that field first. Discuss these in your paper and show that you are already familiar with the issues, theories, assumptions, well-known authors, etc., before you start a completely different type of research or before you challenge all the accepted assumptions.

​​

• Practice, skill, talent:

  • Every field is characterized by technical and cultural rules that dictate how you can create. Operating and manipulating these rules not only requires prior knowledge, but also practice, skill and talent. So make sure that with every research you conduct you are as inventive as possible. This helps you in practising your creative thinking and will take you one step further each time.

​​

• Flexibility:

  • The essence of creativity is creating unknown combinations of well-known ideas: bringing together two or more existing ideas and creating something new. Therefore, a flexible mind is just as important as having a lot of knowledge and practice.

  • So when doing research, go beyond your own field and play with ideas or examples until they form an interesting combination that you can use. The inspiration for this combination or an element thereof can just as easily come from a different domain than the one you are specialized in.

  • In addition to combining disciplines (interdisciplinarity), you can also come to creative combinations by discussing certain recurring issues in relation to one another.

  • Please note: in some domains it is harder to create unique combinations than it is in other domains, simply because some disciplines are more strictly regulated than others.

​​

• Trial and error:

  • Only by trying out you will discover new combinations. This requires an approach of trial and error.

​​

• Serendipity:

  • A major part of the creative process consists of the so-called discovery of an unknown, unexplored area without a map. As you often do not know where the research and thus the results will lead to, serendipity is very important. Serendipity refers to finding something unexpected but useful while you are looking for something completely different. When you venture into uncharted territory, chances are high you will find yourself in an unexpected but interesting area. So keep an open mind to changes in your research and new insights that make you change lanes while writing.

​​

• Preparation and evaluation:

  • These are the elements in a creative process that can be consciously implemented and are indispensable.

​​

• Take your time:

  • The unconscious brain, on the other hand, is better at filtering and processing data and in making intuitive decisions and flexible combinations. It is therefore the unconscious brain that generates the crucial insights, often in the lulls when you are not consciously thinking about the topic. Allow yourself the time to let ideas for your research simmer.

​​

• Divergent & Convergent Thinking:

  • Solving a problem requires both divergent thinking (deviant, anomalous thinking to come to as many potential, new solutions), and convergent thinking (to come to the best solution). So first let your mind run free in the divergent process and then it's time to kill your darlings.

​​

• Formulate what insights you have gained:

  • Finding a creative solution often leads to an insight, an 'aha moment'. A new insight like that places the known, into a new conceptual context. It is therefore important, at the end of your research, to specifically indicate what new insights you have gained and how these might affect the existing conceptual domains.