Bending, blending, and breaking

When we talk about creativity, it doesn’t take long before someone starts describing people as “gifted”, “inspired”, or—less kindly—“unoriginal”. Like creativity is some kind of divine glitter only a few are lucky enough to be sprinkled with. A toy you’ll always be jealous of when that other kid shows it off at the playground.

Creativity is magical—just not in the way you might think.

Creativity isn’t about conjuring something from nothing. Our brains need raw material—figurative clay—to work with.

We’re constantly taking in the world around us—analysing, filtering, connecting it to what we already know, applying new meanings, and reusing it. Our brains are not merely tape recorders—they're always perceiving, reordering, reprioritising, and reconnecting information.

We are bending, blending, and breaking.

These are tools to generate new ideas from available information, and where this blog takes its name from. I first learned about these particular concepts in the book “The Runaway Species” by David Eagleman and Anthony Brandt (recommended if you want to learn more in language that doesn’t require a Ph.D.).

While the vast majority of this work happens subconsciously, I think it’s useful to be aware of it. When we know that our brains process information in a certain way, we can harness these techniques and use them deliberately. Wherever, whenever, including and especially at times when you feel as inspired as a damp rag.

Three core techniques

What we’re really describing here, is what separates us from most other animals. It’s our cognitive flexibility, our ability to break habits and ask “what if”.

1. Bending is the practice of manipulating an existing concept. Can you stretch it, supersize or miniaturise it, change the colour, use a different material? Turn it upside down, make it slow motion, speed up, change the chronological order? Bending is the foundation of cover songs, it’s Romeo & Juliet the movie, it is high heeled shoes and all the haircuts you’ve seen in your life.
   
   It can be gradual improvement through small changes over time—or a revolution that makes something so cheap and user-friendly that suddenly, everybody wants it—like the touch screen smart phone you might be reading this on.
2. Blending is combining existing concepts (or pieces of them) into something new. It’s mermaids, Spiderman and creole languages. It’s perfume, selective breeding, and ballet danced to hip hop. Baking. Idioms. Airplanes with wings.
   
   The pieces can be closely connected or seemingly unrelated, and this is one of the areas where some people seem to have a natural affinity. They’re able to connect higher numbers of more remote concepts faster than the average person.
3. Breaking is the practice of taking something apart. Deconstructing the humble apple pie for a fine dining experience. Cutting the arms off a blazer for a fashion statement. Leaving the face blank in a portrait. When something is broken into pieces, we see them differently, and they transform to create something new. We see breaking in language, where we take the whole concept of marriage, cut away almost everything, and reduce it to asking for someone’s hand, or like Beyoncé, to “put a ring on it”.
   
   By breaking things into parts, we shift how we see them—and create room for something new. Leave the gaps. Show the broken and reduced as it is. Or reassemble the pieces like Lego. You can hide the seams—or highlight them.

Wrap-up

Bending, blending, and breaking are ways that our brains recycle available information into new output. How it turns sensory experiences, knowledge, memories, and interpretation, into new ideas and concepts. And now that you’re aware, you can use these techniques deliberately. Put them on a post-it note above your desk for when you’re feeling stuck!

For all these techniques, you can operate with one single source, or combine literal and figurative pixels into new creations.

Bend something. Blend something. Break something.

And remember: everything you’ve ever known is raw material!

Now I’d love to know how you bend, blend or break in your practice—drop me a line or tag @breaksomethingstudio on Instagram ❤️