Creative freedom

“All the time you’re saying to yourself, “I could do that, but I won’t “- which is just another way of saying that you can’t.”
— Richard P. Feynman

At the ocean science and engineering conference, I listen to many talks on fascinating subjects that are a bit outside of my main area of research (which is fluid mechanics.) They are just sufficiently remote, so that I think it won’t be a good idea to allocate time and other resources to pursue these tangent areas. Then, I remind myself that the ability to change the focus of research is, perhaps, the greatest benefit of working in academe — the proverbial academic freedom.

The problem with the concept of academic freedom is that more often than not our research directions are dictated by the combination of funding sources (interests of collaborating industrial partners, for example) and infrastructure availability, available time that is free of teaching duties, etc. All these factors forms a rather cynical insider’s outlook on the academic research, its role in the society and on our capacity to take creative decisions about research direction.

However, the limitations on the freedom of choice are almost entirely self-imposed in this case. It is as if we (the university-based researchers like myself) are operating under hypnosis. Richard Feynman described this effect very vividly in his autobiographic collection of stories “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” When he was under hypnosis, he was fully aware that he probably could do things contrary to what he was instructed to do. Nevertheless, he never chose to go against the external instructions, because it was too uncomfortable to do so at the moment.

I often find myself in a similar situation with photography. I see someone else’s beautiful work and think, “This is really interesting. I know exactly how it was done. I could do this too.” But in most cases, just saying this to myself precludes me from actually trying the new type of shot. As if declaring my ability to do something makes me subconsciously check this potential project off as already accomplished.