Tools for
|
Synectics
SubtractSimplify. Omit, remove certain parts or elements. Take something away from your subject. Compress it or make it smaller.
Think: What can be eliminated, reduced, disposed of? What rules can you break? How can you simplify, abstract, stylize or abbreviate? AddExtend, expand, or otherwise develop your reference subject. Augment it, supplement, advance or annex it, Magnify it: Make it bigger.
Think: What else can be added to your idea, image, object, or material? AnimateMobilize visual and psychological tensions in a sculpure or design. Control the pictorial movements and forces in a picture.
Apply factors of repetition, progression, serialization or narration. Bring life to inanimate subjects by thinking of them as having human qualities. SubstituteExchange, switch or replace:
Think: What other idea, image, material or ingredient can you substitute for all or part of your subject? What alternate or supplementary plan can be employed? DistortTwist your subject out of its true shape, proportion or meaning.
Think: What kind of imagined or actual distortions can you effect? How can you misshape it? Can you make it longer, wider, fatter, narrower? Can you maintain or produce a unique metaphoric and aesthetic quality when you misshape it? Can you melt it, burn it, crush it, spill something on it, bury it, crack it, tear it or subject it to yet other "tortures"? MythologizeCreate a myth around your subject or theme.
PrevaricateEquivocate. Fictionalize, "bend" the truth, falsify, fantasize. Although telling fibs is not considered acceptable social conduct, it is the stuff that legends and myths are made of. Think: How can you use your subject as a theme to present false information?
Equivocate: Present equivocal information that is subject to two or more interpretations and used to mislead or confuse. |
RepeatRepeat a shape, color, form, image or idea. Reiterate, echo, restate or duplicate your reference subject in some way.
Think: How can you control the factors of occurrence, repercussion, sequence and progression? TransferMove your subject into a new situation, environment or context. Adapt, transpose, relocate, dislocate. Move the subject out of its normal environment; transpose it to a different historical, social, geographical or political setting or time.
Think: How can your subject be converted, translated, or transfigured? SuperimposeOverlap, place over, cover, overlay: Superimpose dissimilar images or ideas. Overlay elements to produce new images, ideas or meanings. Superimpose different elements from different perspectives, disciplines or time periods on your subject. Combine sensory perceptions (sound/color, etc).
FragmentSeparate, divide, split: Take your subject or idea apart. Dissect it. Chop it up or otherwise disassemble it.
Think: What devices can you use to divide it into smaller increments- or to make it appear discontinuous? DisguiseCamouflage, conceal, deceive or encrypt: How can you hide, mask or "implant' your subject into another frame of reference? In nature, for example, chameleons, moths and certain other species conceal themselves by mimicry: Their figure imitates the ground. How can you apply this to your subject?
Think about subliminal imagery: How can you create a latent image that will communicate subconsciously, below the threshold of conscious awareness? SymbolizeUse symbols, that are understood by many or metaphors, that may be more personal.
AnalogizeSeek Similarities, find connections and draw associations.
Think: What can I compare my subject to? What logical and illogical associations can I make? Remember, stretching analogies is a way of generating synergistic effects, new perceptions and potent metaphors. Hybridize |
CombineBring things together. Connect, arrange, link, unify, mix, merge, wed, rearrange. Combine ideas, materials and techniques.
Ask: What else can you connect to your subject? EmpathizeSympathize. Relate to your subject; put yourself in its "shoes." If the subject is inorganic or inanimate, think of it as having human qualities.
Think:How can you relate to it emotionally or subjectively? "Transpose yourself into your subject." Change ScaleChange the aspect ratio, make the subject larger or smaller, or Change the proportion.
IsolateSeparate, set apart, crop, detach: Use only a part of your subject. In composing a picture, use a viewfinder to crop the image or visual field selectively. "Crop" your ideas, too, with a "mental" viewfinder.
Think: What element can you detach or focus on? ContradictContradict the subjects original function. Contravene, disaffirm, deny, reverse: Many great works of art are, in fact, visual and intellectual contradictions. They may contain opposite, antipodal, antithetical or converse elements which are integrated in their aesthetic and structural form. Contradict laws of nature such as gravity, time, etc.
Think: How can you visualize your subject in connection with the reversal of laws of nature, gravity, magnetic fields, growth cycles, proportions; mechanical and human functions, procedures, games, rituals or social conventions? FantisizeCreate bizzarre, preposterous, surreal, curious ideas. Think about impossibilities or ridiculous combinations.
TransformDepict your subject matter in a period of change or growth. Metamorphose,transmute,or transfigure.
|
For a print out of Synectic Trigger Mechanisms visit:
https://webspace.ringling.edu/~ccjones/curricula/01-02/sophcd/readings/synectics.html
https://webspace.ringling.edu/~ccjones/curricula/01-02/sophcd/readings/synectics.html