Bisociation
The Act of Creation is a 1964 book by Arthur Koestler. It is a study of the processes of discovery, invention, imagination and creativity in humour, science, and the arts. It lays out Koestler's attempt to develop an elaborate general theory of human creativity.
From describing and comparing many different examples of invention and discovery, Koestler concludes that they all share a common pattern which he terms "bisociation" – a blending of elements drawn from two previously unrelated matrices of thought into a new matrix of meaning by way of a process involving comparison, abstraction and categorisation, analogies and metaphors. He regards many different mental phenomena based on comparison (such as analogies, metaphors, parables, allegories, jokes, identification, role-playing, acting, personification, anthropomorphism etc.), as special cases of "bisociation".
The concept of bisociation has been adopted, generalised and formalised by cognitive linguists Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, who developed it into conceptual blending theory.[1]
EXAMPLES:
•Computers + mail order
– Dell Computers (Michael Dell)
• Auction + web
– Ebay (Pierre Omidyar)
• Bookstore + web
– Amazon.com (Jeff Bezos)
• Horse carriage + steam engine
– Car/train (debatable as to who was first)
• Circus + theatre
– Cirque du Soleil
•Wine press + coin punch
– Printing press (Gutenberg)
• Rubber + waffle iron
– Sole for Nike shoe (Bill Bowerman)
• Tablet PC + cell phone
– iPhone (Steve Jobs)
• Stuffed animal + web game
– Webkinz (Ganz)
• Crayons + tires
– First black tires (Goodrich Company)
• Blinking + windshield wipers
– Intermittent wipers (Robert Kearns)
