In the 2002 Creativity Research Journal article entitled "The Emergence of Novel Attributes in Concept Modification" Zachary Estes and Thomas B. Ward discuss the concept of "emergence" which involves flipping the meaning of words, ideas and concepts from familiar meanings to new or unfamiliar meanings.
Make Bad Attitudes Good
Estes and Ward use the word "shark" to explain how it works. They note when people hear or read the word "shark" they usually think about the shark's "temperament". Estes and Ward note that, "A typical feature of that [shark's] dimension is 'aggressive' ".
A shark with an aggressive temperament sounds perfectly fine, but Estes and Ward suggest flipping the image to create a "harmless shark". New material emerges. What would cause a shark to be harmless? It almost sounds like science fiction and fantasy or maybe a children's book.
Make Familiar Colors New
Estes and Ward say play with other dimensions, too, like color and sound. Use color to turn the shark into a white shark, a black shark or any color other than the familiar. Each iteration produces new concepts to spark creativity.
Using controlled experiments, Estes and Ward note that creative people were able to come up with more new concepts than non-creative people.
They call this playing with the "typicality" and the "atypicality" of an image, object or concept. In other words, examining what is typical about the object and examining what is not typical, then the rest is creativity. Here are a few ideas to get started.
First: Make a List of Images, Concepts, Words
- Bus
- Bear
- Cereal
- Car
- Building
- Hero
Second: Write Normal Dimensions
- Bus: yellow, big, children, school, road
- Bear: black, big, ferocious, strong
- Cereal: wheat, oats, breakfast, brown
- Car: drive, passengers, doors, expensive
Third: Flip the Attributes and Create New Dimensions
- Bus: purple, only 5 seats, underground
- Bear: size of a cat, licks you like a dog, runs at the sound of noise
- Cereal: made of tree bark, usually eaten later in the day
- Car: driver's seat in back, on rails
The attribute flipping can be an endless creativity booster. Estes and Ward say be careful because the technique does not always work with all unrelated concepts like "cloudy empty". So don't be discouraged if the exercise does not work with every combination.
The next time dreaded writer's block sets in, exercise the creative juices through wordplay. Look at words and phrases a different way to create new themes and ideas and enhance creativity.
References
Estes, Z and Ward, TB (2002). The Emergence of Novel Attributes in Concept Modification. Creativity Research Journal, 2(14), 149-156.
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