Now an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Technology,
Policy and Management (TPM), Steenhuisen has
taken his love of poetry to another level.
It was always a habit to write his thoughts and ideas down, said Steenhuisen. In 2009 he put some of his creative work into action and started participating in poetry slams, a form of competitive performance poetry. That same year he won a contest that gave him the opportunity to be a TEDxDelft presenter. Frustrated at work with what he termed “unreadable consultancy reports”, Steenhuisen spoke about using poetry as a more effective way to communicate than prose.
A few years later, he wrote his first “science sonnet”. “Theses are often considered too complex to read because they are very dense,” he said. He explained that in scientific writing people tend to be too serious and precise. But in Steenhuisen’s opinion, precision is overrated. “If you open the door to play with words, you can connect the context to what you’re doing.”
Steenhuisen currently publishes a blog for TU Delta called Poetic Engineering. Collaborating with Jan Beuving, a writer and theatre artist, he creates rhymes by condensing a TU Delft thesis or dissertation into a sonnet.
Steenhuisen hopes to challenge candidates to write in a more effective way to reach an audience beyond just the experts. He feels that poetry may have something to offer.
delta.tudelft.nl/blog/poetic-engingeering
Comments are closed.