Posted by Philip Morley.
Over the past few months we’ve been experimenting with different forms of creating random input. Random input is key to Lateral Thinking (a term invented by Edward de Bono) and uses ‘things’ plucked from nowhere to provoke new thinking.
Sounds crazy but it works.
Well, we’ve been noticing that good musical lyrics are laden with concepts and ideas that can act as a very pleasurable random input.
Musical tastes vary but this doesn’t matter. It can actually help if you don’t like the music sometimes. What’s important is the concepts contained within the lyric.
We’ve compiled a playlist which we now bring along to all creative workshops. We believe that each one of these tracks contains numerous concepts that can be explored.
The idea is you listen once and you jot down the things that catch your ear.
Here are some of the things that jump out from Heroes by David Bowie. These are the things that I spotted. There are things other people would hear that I’ve missed. This isn’t really important.
1. Monarchy – kings, queens.
2. Repulsion – maybe some force field or magnetic push.
3. Diary, calendar, watch.
4. Conflict, soldier, war, struggle.
5. Drink, alcoholism.
6. Attraction, love, glue.
7. Dolphin, swim.
Just over six minutes. One listen. Not much concentration. But some rich concepts to explore – all we need now is a discussion topic so that these apparently irrelevant stimuli can have a real purpose.
Philip|Morley 