Don't fall in love with your work: Sabuhi Essa on creative processes

Anthony Haynes writes: Sabuhi Essa, from (as she proudly declares) "the feet of the greatest mountains in the world" in northern Pakistan, trained in an art school in Pakistan, practiced architecture, and is now researching the topic of resilience whilst based in the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering.

Of all the hundred or thousands of creatives, writers, and researchers I've mentored, few if any have proved more receptive to feedback than Sabuhi - especially critical feedback.

When I noticed this, I asked her, 'How come?' It turns out that her openness and receptiveness are a function of her design philosophy, which itself derives from a charismatic teacher at National College of the Arts in Lahore.

In this episode, Sabuhi tells the story of the evolution of her design philosophy and explains how she applies that approach to various media, including drawing and writing.

Further listening

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Credits

• Sound production: Bart Hallmark*
• Music: from Handel's Water Music, courtesy of the United States Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra

* I confess that we threw Bart a curve-ball with this episode. When we started recording, we experienced a problem with audio quality at Sabuhi's end. We fixed that, but in the process somehow created a problem at my end. As a result, the file that Bart received was not in good shape. The quality here may not be up to our usual standards - but Bart certainly did his bit to improve it!