the challenge
Today we are playing with a ReShape Seed — a Seed with an abstract shape on it, instead of a textual trigger.
ReShape Seeds don’t have a title — at least not formally. This gives more room (or at least a different room) for interpretation. Looking for Insights based on a shape triggers different connections in our brain.
Let’s see what treasures this will lead us to…
my insight
My first association when I first saw the shape on the Seed was that of chopsticks. Well, chopsticks with a sushi roll between them, if you would like to be more specific.
But while this is a nice association to play with, it is limiting. The whole point of a ReShape Seed is using the shape — not a textual interpretation of it — as the trigger for the creative exploration activity. So, I forced myself to put the chopsticks idea aside, and focus on the shape.
This is the Insight I captured some time later.
This might require some explanation: how is that associated with the Seed. Well, these cardboard cylinders caught my eyes even before I thought of the Seed. But a second later I noticed that they include the two elements from the visual trigger. From one side, they look like sticks — especially from a distance. From the front, however, they look like circles.
So, instead of focusing on the interaction between the circle and the lines in the Seed or focusing on their apparent placement, my brain just broke the shape to two elements: lines and circles. And the cylinders I found were a perfect match to this combination as each of them can act both as a line and as a circle.
reflection
The Insight I captured today is a perfect example of seeing things differently even before we use them as raw material for imagining new stuff. And surprisingly, it started with seeing the Seed differently.
To create the association between the Insight I saw and the shape on the Seed, my brain had to break free from some elements in the Seed. First, it had to “forget” the interpretation it was hooked on: the chopsticks image. Then, my brain had to decouple the shapes (lines and circles) from their placement or apparent interaction. And finally, I had to overcome the notion of circles and lines as two distinct shapes: they can live within a single object in a 3D world.
Now, clearly this is not the only way to address the Seed. The next Insight I will capture might focus on the angle of the lines, or the implicit gravity (as the circle seems to fall from the upper level to the lower one), or any other aspect I can’t even imagine now. That’s the beauty of association. And that’s what makes the creative exploration so interesting.
In many cases until now, it was the Seed that helped me see things differently in the real world. Today, it was the Insight — something in the real world — that made me see the Seed differently.
mental notes
- Seeds and Insights influence each other. The Seed impacts how we see something in the real world, but the Insight can also change how we see the Seed.
now it is your turn… be creative!