This document provides an introduction to the concept of synectics and design synectics. It defines synectics as bringing different things into a unified connection through analogical and metaphorical thinking. The document outlines the synectic process of making the familiar strange and the strange familiar. It introduces the 23 synectic triggers that can be used to disrupt conventional thinking and generate new ideas. Students are given homework assignments involving applying synectics concepts such as creating synectic trigger cards and using triggers and force fields in designs.

1. Basic Design 2011
Spring

2. week 1. Introduction to synetics

3. 1. Introduction to Design Synectics
2. 分合法（Synetics）

4. 1.INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN
SYNECTICS

5. Based on
Design Synectics
by
Nicholas Roukes

6. Synectics Definition
• The term Synectics is from the Greek word
synectikos, which means “bringing forth
together,” or “bringing different things into
unified connection.”
• Synectics is about making connections.

7. Since creativity involves the
changing of things into new
structures, every creative thought
or action draws on synectic thinking.

8. Synectic thinking is the process of
discovering the links that unite
seemingly disconnected elements.

9. It is a way of mentally
taking things apart and
putting them together to
furnish new insight for
all types of problems.

10. Synectics Definition
• Creative discovery comes from analogical and
metaphorical thinking, the process of linking
unlike subjects.
• You must create VISUAL analogies and
metaphors.

11. Thinking to Connect
• Analogical thinking is a comparison between
two things that are similar in some respects,
often used to help explain something or make
it easier to understand.
• Metaphorical thinking is when one thing is
used or considered to represent another

12. Thinking to Connect
Metaphorical thinking is
when one thing is used
or considered to
= or is like
represent another.

13. The Synectic Process
• Make something strange familiar…
• Create something new…
• Personal analogies-do you feel like a sponge,
doormat? Do you see yourself as a lion, a mouse?
• Direct analogies-A school is like a salad…life is like an
elevator.
• Conflicting analogies…War-creative and destructive.
Talent is a blessing and a curse.

14. Metaphorical Thinking
• A metaphor is a soft thinking technique connecting
two different universes of meaning.
• Examples: Food chain, flow of time, fiscal watchdog.
• The key to metaphorical thinking is similarity. The
human mind tends to look for similarities.
• A road map is a model or metaphor of reality and
useful for explaining things.
• The Dolby Sound system is like a sonic laundry.

15. Architect Buckminster Fuller summed
up the essence of synectics when he
said all things regardless of their
dissimilarity can somehow be linked
together, either in a physical,
psychological or symbolic way.

16. The Synectic Attitude
• Synectics encourages the ability to live with
complexity and apparent contradiction.
• Synectics stimulates creative thinking.
• Synectics mobilizes both sides of the brain,
the right brain (the dreamer), and the left
brain (the reasoner).
• Synectics provides a free-thinking state of
consciousness .

17. The Synectic Ways of Working
• Synectics is based on the fusion of opposites.
• Synectics is based on analogical thinking.
• Synectics is synergistic. Its action produces a
result which is greater than the sum of its
parts.

18. The Synectic Pinball Machine
• Synectic thinking is like a mental pinball game.
Stimulus input bounced against the scoring
bumpers (the Trigger Questions) is
transformed.
• Ordinary perceptions are turned into
extraordinary ones; the familiar or prosaic is
made strange.
• Synectic play is the creative mind at work.

19. The Synectic Triggers
• Synectic Trigger mechanisms catalyze or
create new thoughts, ideas and inventions.
• Synectic Theory is based on disruptive
thinking.

20. The 23 Design Synectic Triggers
Subtract Change Scale Prevaricate
Repeat Substitute Analogize
Combine Fragment Hybridize
Add Isolate Metamorphose
Transfer Distort Symbolize
Empathize Disguise Mythologize
Animate Contradict Fantasize
Superimpose Parody

21. Take Creative Action!
• Ideas are not born in a vacuum.
• Use the 23 synectic triggers to transform your
ideas into something new.
• The triggers are tools for transformational
thinking and may lead you to some great
discoveries.

22. Art Think: Ways of Working
1. Identify: Set the problem or task, identify the subject.
2. Analyze: Examine the subject; break it down, classify it.
3. Ideate: Think, fantasize, produce ideas. Generate options
towards a creative solution. Relate, rearrange,
reconstruct. What design synectic triggers can
you use?
4. Select: Choose your best option.
5. Implement: Put your ideas into action. Realize it. Transform
imagination and fantasy into tangible form.
6. Evaluate: Judge the result. Think about new options and
possibilities that have emerged. Go back to
step #1.

23. Your Assignment
Draw a picture you can use to
transform using the 23 synectic
triggers. Be sure it is a complete
drawing of an object. No heads,
people or cartoons!

24. 2. 分合法（SYNETICS）

25. 分合法（Synetics）
• 分合法係由果登（Gordon W.J.J.）於1961年
發表「分合法：創造能力的發展」
（Synetics: the development of creativity）一
書，所提出的一套團體問題解決的方法。

26. • 其本義為「將原不相同，亦無關聯的元素
加以整合」。

27. • 果登的分合法將過去所認為神秘的創造過
程，用簡單的話歸納為兩種心理運作的歷
程：
• 1.使熟悉的事物變得新奇（由合而分）。
• 2.使新奇的事物變得熟悉（由分而合）。

28. • 所謂「使熟悉的事物變得新奇」，也就是熟
悉的事物陌生化，此一歷程在使學生對某種熟
悉的事物，用新穎而富有創意的觀點，去重新
了解舊問題、舊事物、舊觀念，以產生學習的
興趣。
• 例如，有一些諺語就是從另一個新奇的角度來
解釋一些熟悉的概念，就像我們很熟悉的「母
雞」這個概念，採用化熟悉為新奇的方法，就
是：「母雞只是生蛋的一個工具。」

29. • 所謂「使新奇的事物變得熟悉」，也就
是熟悉陌生的事物，此一歷程，主要在增
進學生對不同新奇事物的理解，使不同的
材料主觀化。
• 大部份的學生對於陌生事物的學習，多少
都會有些壓力。所以，面對陌生的事物，
或新觀念時，教師可經由學生熟悉的概念
來瞭解。

30. • 通常可以用兩種方式來熟悉陌生的事物。
• 其一是分析法，先把陌生的事物盡可能劃分
成許多小部份，然後就每個小部分加以研究。
• 第二個方法是利用類推，即對陌生的事物加以
類推。例如，可問學生：「這個像什麼呢？」，
「它像你所知道的那一樣東西呢？」

31. • 果登的分合法，主要是運用類推
（analogies）和譬喻（metaphors）的技術
來協助學生分析問題，並形成相異的觀點。

32. • 「譬喻」的功能在使事物之間，或事物
教材之間形成「概念距離」（conceptual
distance），以激發學生的「新思」。
• 例如，問學生：「如果教室像電影院」，
提供新穎的譬喻架構，讓學生以新的途徑，
去思考所熟悉的事物。

33. • 相反地，我們也可以讓學生以舊有的方
式，去思索新的主題，例如，以人體去比
擬交通運輸系統。

34. • 譬喻的活動可將某種觀念，從熟悉的教材
串連到新教材，或以新觀點，去分析熟悉
的教材。
• 透過此種「概念距離」的形成，學生能自
由任意地思索其日常生活中的活動或經驗，
發揮想像力及領悟力。

35. Homework
• 製作 synetic triggers 23 張牌卡, 附圖片範例

36. week 2. Sensing the force field

37. Force field in nature scene

38. Ex: Sketch the force field of the
following scene:

39. Ex: Sketching the force field of van
Gogh's work:

40. EX: Sketching the force field of
Vasarely's work:

41. Ex: Sketching the force field of Henry
Moore's work:

42. Liquid magnetic sculpture
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OsW8zctD7CM

43. Home Work
• Take 5 photos to show force field
• upload 5 photos and their corresponding force
field

44. week 3. Form and Force

45. VICTOR VASARELY, BETELGEUSE

46. • Ex1. Applying force field to an abstract shape array

47. • Ex2. Subconscious drawing

49. • Ex3. Imaginative projection on a roadmap

50. • Ex4. Draw the above Trilobyte as #1 shape, and the shell as #6
shape, then morph the inbetweens #2-#5 shape

51. • "The form of an object is a diagram of forces.
We can deduce the forces that are acting or
have acted upon it; in this strict and particular
sense, it is a diagram." ~ D'arcy Thompson

52. Home Work
• 1. Find a shape and its force field
• 2. apply the forcefield to a basic shape array
• 3. use 6 synectics rules when applying
forcefield

53. week 4. Function analog

54. • Philip Johnson

55. • Philip Johnson

56. • Philip Johnson

57. • Jean Tinguely

58. • Jean Tinguely

59. • Jean Tinguely

60. • Jean Tinguely

61. • "Invention is the process of discovering a
principle. Design is the process of applying that
principle." ~ David Pye "To design is to plan and
to organize to related and to control.
• In short it embraces all means opposing disorder
and accident.
• Therefore it signifies a human need and qualifies
man's
thinking and doing."
• Joseph Albers

62. Concept
• Inventions come from a result of analogizing
the way something work.

63. Home Work
• 1. find a mechanism system
• 2. use "analog" and 2 other synectics rules
• 3. create a mixed media work

64. week 5. sculpture of nature
materials

65. • Andy Goldsworthy

66. • Andy Goldsworthy

67. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulLU1BUJk8Q

68. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stwDR4zgNFY

69. • http://vimeo.com/5060259

70. • Andy Goldsworthy - Naturally beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&
v=fUpVf-7i75I

71. • Richard Long retrospective at Tate Britain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_T3OvBdtKM&feature=p
layer_embedded

72. • Minimalists and Conceptualists: Richard Long, Jan Dibbets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_T3OvBdtKM&feature=p
layer_embedded

73. Concept
• Inventions come from a result of analogizing
the way something work.

74. Home Work
• 1. find a mechanism system
• 2. use "analog" and 2 other synectics rules
• 3. create a mixed media work

75. week 6. HW4 review

76. • Philip Johnson

77. • Jean Tinguely

78. • Jean Tinguely

79. • "Invention is the process of discovering a
principle. Design is the process of applying
that principle." ~ David Pye "To design is to
plan and to organize to related and to control.
• In short it embraces all means opposing
disorder and accident.
• Therefore it signifies a human need and
qualifies man's thinking and doing."

80. Concept
• Inventions come from a result of analogizing
the way something work.

81. Home Work
• 1. find a mechanism system
• 2. use "analog" and 2 other synectics rules
• 3. create a mixed media work

82. week 7. basic systems in nature

83. • Spiral • Grid
• Explosion • Lattice
• Vertebraic • Interlocking
• Radiating • Stress and Flow
• Cluster • Close Packing
• Branching • Open Packing

84. Vertebraic

85. • http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/scott-jarvie-atlas-chair

86. HR Giger
• http://www.snegidhi.com/2010/96-30-03/vertebrae-skeleton-bar.html

87. HR Corian Vertebrae Couch Backs Innovation at
Toronto Interior Design ShowGiger
• http://www.dexigner.com/news/17002

88. Vertebrae recliner rocker by Anna Franco from
the Art Center College of Design
• http://www.icsid.org/feature/current/articles1053.htm

89. Vertebrae recliner rocker by Anna Franco from
the Art Center College of Design
• http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/interiors/index.php?fuseaction=prod
uct.productview&pdid=113

90. Mandala

91. week 8. Vertebraic Form Review

92. Vertebraic Form

93. Home Work
• Design a Vertebraic System
This Vertebraic system should demonstrate
the concept of "Future"

94. week 9. mandala drawing

95. Mandala drawing

96. Student’s Drawing

98. week 10. cyborgs

105. week 11. Analogy

106. 7 analogs
• Design Analogs
• Function Analogs
• Phenomena Analogs
• Sensory Analogs
• Empathy Analogs
• Symbolic Analogs
• Fantasy Analogs

107. 1. Design Analogs
• Protozoa such as a Radiolaria as stimulus

111. 2. Function Analogs
• in Homework

112. 3. Phenomena Analogs

113. 4. Sensory Analogs
• Morris Graves

114. 5. Empathy Analogs
• Marc Chagall on Lover

115. organic and form

116. week 12. semiotics and
vertebraic form review

117. week 13. 共時性

118. week 14. 演講: Macdonald
Steward

119. • 系上很榮幸邀請到英國學者Professor
Macdonald Steward 以及光助大房創辦人黃
怡儒進行兩場講座，訂於6月2日下午1:00於
IB-202舉行, 請各位同學前往聽講, 並轉告大
家.