In this seminar session we looked at how two or more opposing ideas can be pushed together, to make something new or different. The example given was that of the craze of "circuit bending". Within this, a "new" sound is formed by playing and experimenting with the sound circuits already in certain items. E.g. children's sound learning toys. It combines music, creativity, passion and something pre-existing; but forms a complete new, that has not been achieved previously.
In order to better gauge this, we all physically undertook our own "combining" examples. Inspired by William Burrough's "cut-ups", we used different sections and snippets from newspapers to form new ideas and get out of a set path mentally on something that already pre-exists. This is essential for creative individuals such as designers, as versatility is key as being 'set' on one idea can lead to narrow research and missing clients brief specifications.
Using newspaper was a way in which we edited the way sentences or paragraphs read. That even the bizzare, different, and seemingly nonsense can have a profound effect on shifting us out of a mental block of repeating what already exists. Creative writers may also take this approach as it allows for a unique mixture of word forms that otherwise wouldn't of been thought of.
This was the "mixed up" creation, me and a partner created. Some sentences still read coherently but have a different meaning than intended; whereas other are intangible and are obscuring to the eye by not being able to be read conventionally from left to right the correct way up on the page.
