5. Juxtaposition

The "We've Won It" supplement papers comes together with the "Terror Bombs Explode Across London" Evening Standard for free.

A ragged, old man sitting on the pavement while looking upon a nicely dressed young lady.

Old vs New: The Trinity Church in Boston.

Juxtaposition is the act of placing two unrelated objects together to indicate a relationship between them. Stimulation of creative thinking occurs when  two contrasting objects are in close proximity. The analogy of the juxtaposed subjects can be categorized into two - metaphor and simile.

Metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two. For example, "All the world's a stage" is a metaphor from a play written by Shakespeare. It compares the world to a theatre stage and life to a play (of seven stages).

Simile is pretty much the same as metaphor, but the key to their difference is that simile uses the conjunctions, "like" or "as", while metaphor connects the two subject directly.

Metaphor: "All the world's a stage,"

Simile: "The whole world is like a theatre stage."

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The tasks this week was rather fun, because really random and odd ideas were conjured thanks to entire class juxtaposing almost everything.

Task 1

Firstly, we were given two lists of words, and we had to choose three pairs of numbers (00 to 99).

Click to enlarge

I picked three pairs of numbers and ended up with these combinations:

i) Flower & Root

ii) Ice & Mountain

iii)Duck & Rain

Then, we built sentences using these words, and with those sentences, we illustrate it out using our imagination. The fourth part, we had to draw out the combination of words instead of the sentence.

i) flower root

ii) ice mountain

iii) duck rain

Task 2

We were asked to choose two animals and combine them together, forming a new species of animal. Their characteristics need to be merged, but it has to be impossible for them to survive on Earth (land creature with sea creature).

This is a seahorse. Literally. It is a mutated horse with the body of a real seahorse. Horses are grazing animals while seahorses consume tiny crustaceans and shrimps, invertebrates and small fishes. Although they have similar physical features such as their long, nozzle-like "faces", almost everything about them - their breathing mechanism, reproductive system etc - are different.

Task 3

Candle vs Life

You start out life standing bold and tall,
With a flame so bright you outshine all.
To give so much, you burn from the core,
Time after time, others still ask for more.

Life's glory so brief, you were an untold legend,

Insignificant being, your death was hastened.

A fickle light towards the end,
There is nothing before that you can mend.

Ice cream vs Pain

Sweet and silky, freezing cold,

A scoop or more for young and old.

Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and mint,

Every flavour with a different tint.

A spoonful or two can be delightful,

But have too much and it'll get frightful.

What's more irresistible to a child with cavities,

Than cold hard cream with flavours of candies?

Chilli vs Love

Your love is hot and dangerous,
A taste of you makes me delirious.
The trace of your lips like fire,
They are all my heart's desire.
Being with you it's always summertime,
Feisty, erotic, yet so sublime.
You are my greatest temptation,
Loving you is a sultry sensation.

4. Mind Maps

I'm sure you are no stranger to this visual thinking tool. A mind map is used for idea generation, visualization  and organization, and is great for a structured planning of writing, classifying notes, problem solving and studying, and has been vastly applied throughout our education process for its efficiency. It usually consists of a network of branched out categories with the main topic/theme in the middle. Here are a couple of examples of mind maps:

Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind mapping, claims that the mind map is a vastly superior note taking method because it does not lead to a "semi-hypnotic trance" state induced by other note forms. There are some guidelines to follow in order to create a good mind map:

a) Start in the center with an image of the topic.

b) Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map.

c) Keep the topics label as short as possible.

d) Vary text size, color and alignment.

e) Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation and also to encode or group.

f) Use emphasis and show associations in your mind map.

Mind maps can be classified into two categories: logical and associated. A logical mind map consists of words directly linked together based on stereotype. It is useful for taking down notes and organizing information. On the other hand, an associated mind map connects words that seems to have no related meanings, but are actually associated by memory. The two mind maps shown above are logical mind maps, as you might've guessed. Here's an example of an associated mind map:

I wasn't complete sure about the random word method at first because it seems to divert too much from logic. The truth is, associating two totally different things together produces more interesting and unexpected outcomes. This is why associated mind maps are perfect for idea generation and unconventional brainstorming.

We've tried out the method in class, first with a logical mind map and illustration of our friend sitting beside us.

Images courtesy of Heng Pei Ling.

Then, our lecturer gave us the task of creating an invention that would become something common in the future based on a mortar and a pestle with the help of this associated mind map:

This was what i came up with:

Click to enlarge

Exercise: A suit designed for running can be made with pestles around the body and a cap and dumbbells using mortars.

Coconut: The mortar and pestle can be used as a coconut crusher.

Brad Pitt: Brad Pitt will set new trends in the future with an Oscar outfit made of a mortar and pestle.