The opposite of zenith is nadir. If zenith is the peak, nadir is the trough. Experience nadir and you’re at rock bottom, your lowest ebb, in the gutter. Every one of us will likely feel this way at some point in our lives; the utter hopelessness that comes from everything that could go wrong going wrong, and all at the same time.

If experiencing nadir is something uniquely human – though I could be mistaken, I’m pretty sure animals’ lives don’t ever fall apart in quite the same way – then so too is our extraordinary capacity to create. Which makes me wonder, is there any correlation between these two conditions?

Of course, we all know the trope of the struggling artist, but is there a deeper, more profound relationship between creativity and crisis? Perhaps if we understood more about whether they interact, and how, then we’d be better placed to be both more creative and less vulnerable, when life inevitably hits the skids.