The Hook-Ups technique is similar to the Link-Ups technique, but is designed to search out more creative approaches.
How does 'Hook-Ups' Work?
In Link-Ups you start from the problem using connecting ideas to reach out in a selected creative direction.
In Hook-Ups you start from a point some distance away from the problem and search for connections back to the Specific Ideas being developed.
The purpose of the Hook-Up is to generate new ideas (words, concepts, themes etc.) that are unrelated to the specific problem being addressed.
These new ideas are then hooked back onto the specific problem. The objective is to force a connection between these new General Ideas and the Specific Ideas (i.e. the starting point for the creative work) being developed.
The solutions generated through the use of the Hook-Ups Creative Technique can often be more creative.
In order to be of productive use in the creative process, however, they will often require more interpretation.
Illustration: Hook-Ups
The following are examples of passages from The Tailor that were facilitated with the Hook-Ups Creative Technique:
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Specific Idea under development:
At the core the narrative are two antagonistic views of the function of a Tailor.
Format of 'Hook-Up': Random words
Selected Random Words: Publish - Identitiy
Interpretation of this 'Hook-Up': The publicist that fashions the media but not the message
Point-of-Departure constructed by hooking this idea back to the Specific Idea:
The Tailor designs the garment. The audience designs the response.
Passage from The Tailor facilitated with this Hook-Up:
‘Panya is wrong to say that a tailor is responsible for their creation. All a tailor – all that Threads – does is carry the message and strengthen its delivery. We are not the designers of the message. We do not embroider the truth. We do not shape influence. We just improve the power of the signal. It is not Threads that decides what truths people choose to select and what conclusions they choose to gather.
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Specific Idea under development:
Devising the way out of hte valley.
Format of 'Hook-Up': Random words
Selected Random Words: Card - Rifle
Interpretation of this 'Hook-Up': A highly targeted solution delivered in a written form
Point-of-Departure constructed by hooking this idea back to the Specific Idea:
Laying all her cards on the table.
Passage from The Tailor facilitated with this Hook-Up:
The Chairman of the Wetledale Weaving Company looked down at the drawings and careful descriptions that Anjali had sent to him, in the form of a personal letter with important documents enclosed, delivered by courier.
He splayed the garment designs across the oak of the table top, his eyes scanning over the coloured sketches and the highlighted words in the various descriptions.
‘I thank you for the copy of the designs that you used at our last Board meeting. It was an extraordinary thing to send these to me; and I see they are accompanied by your notes explaining almost every stitch.’