Looking Strangely At The World...
One of my favourite things about being a creative is looking at the world in strange ways. It's something I've found myself indulging in a lot lately. It's not something just creatives can do, but I certainly think it's an indulgence creatives experience more. It's fun to look at things and imagine them differently (and daftly). As I've lately been taking a break from work, I've felt like my creative mind has been asserting itself in other ways, conjuring up strange events and ideas upon the world around me.
On awkward roundabouts
Recently on a driving lesson, I had one of those experiences where multiple people arrive at the roundabout at the same time and nobody knows who should go first...everyone is looking to the person on their right. In these situations either nobody goes, or everybody goes.
In my head I imagined instead that right-of-way was dictated by the colour of each vehicle. Red cars would have the right of way in all situations, followed by orange, yellow and all the way down to purple. Everyone would then want to buy red cars...but in a world where right-of-way was dictated by vehicle colour, red cars would a lot cost more. I'll be honest that sounds like an awful way of doing things...I mean think about all the illegal respraying that would be going on for starters...but it was a fun departure from reality.
On emergency stops
There's always a moment where your instructor drives you to some quiet road, asks you to pull over and explains in a quiet raspy voice that when they raise their hand they'd like you to do an emergency stop. In my mind I think musical variations could be a little fun here. Image instead the instructor asks “When I start singing the chorus to ‘I will always love you’ by Whitney Houston I'd like you to do an emergency stop”. It would make for a more interesting lesson for sure! This one makes me smile imagining the perplexed expression of a learner driver and the sheer awkwardness of the situation.
What’s so great about looking at the word strangely?
It's fun. It's creative. It makes me smile to do so. It's surprising to imagine things or people operating in a novel way. I definitely feel like observing the world and trying to reinvent it in silly and different ways is great practice for thinking "sideways" and connecting opposing ideas. It's great practice for creatives, for whom pairing divergent ideas is a constant challenge. Something useful can shake loose from the wackiest of ideas.
You can look around and see the results of people looking strangely at the world. Ever seen those giant crayon waste bins on school playgrounds? I'd argue they're a product of looking at the word strangely. You get that a lot with things designed for children. The strange lens through which the world is viewed has been with me a lot lately, and I'm keen to keep a memory of all the different ideas and solutions it provides. So next time you're looking at the world and thinking 'huh', take a shot and see all the ways to can break down and reinvent/reinterpret what you're seeing!
