Altered Pictures for Generating Alternatives
A lateral thinking technique where parts of a picture are covered to suppress the dominant interpretation, making it easier to generate alternative descriptions and possibilities.
THE IDEA
Describing Pictures in Different Ways
The pictures being compared are not included here. The commentary contrasts descriptions of a boy on a bench.
The description of this picture is quite different from the other example. There is less attempt to say what is happening (e.g. a boy waiting for his pals, a tired boy resting, a boy playing truant from school, a boy enjoying the sun). Instead the description is directed at the scene itself rather than the meaning (e.g. a boy on a park bench, an empty space on the bench). There is also an attempt to look at the picture in an unusual way. This might have gone too far with ‘part of the bench being kept dry by the boy’ but there really are no limits. In any picture there are several different levels of description: what is shown, what is going on, what has happened, what is about to happen. In asking for alternatives the teacher may leave it quite open at first but later on he specifies the level of description within which the alternatives have to be generated.
The trouble with pictures is that too often the obvious interpretation is completely dominant. Not only is it difficult to find other ways of looking at it but these other ways seem silly and artificial. To avoid this difficulty and to make things more interesting the teacher can alter pictures by covering up parts of them. It immediately becomes far more difficult to tell what the picture is about from the exposed part and thus one is able to generate alternative possibilities without being dominated by an obvious interpretation. There is also the added incentive of trying to guess the right answer which will be obvious when the full picture is revealed.
When to use it
Brainstorming sessions where participants are given partial information to inspire novel ideas
Creative writing exercises to develop multiple perspectives on a scene or event
Design thinking workshops to challenge fixed assumptions about user needs
Problem-solving in ambiguous situations where the obvious interpretation may be misleading
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Boy on a Bench
The commentary gives several descriptions of a boy on a bench: waiting for friends, resting, or keeping part of the bench dry. These describe different levels of the same scene. The separate masking technique hides part of a picture to encourage further possibilities; the picture itself is not supplied.
Classroom Exercise
A teacher shows a partially covered image of a street scene. Students generate alternative descriptions: 'a person walking', 'a shadow on the wall', 'a dog crossing the road'. After uncovering, they see the original context and compare their alternatives.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Think of a situation where you automatically assumed one interpretation. How could you force yourself to see alternatives?
What levels of description (what is shown, what is going on) are you using when you look at a problem?
How might covering parts of a problem (temporarily ignoring certain information) help you generate creative solutions?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Lateral Thinking A Textbook of Creativity (Edward de Bono)