The Inspiration Machine, Part 2.

A DESCRIPTION, WITH PHOTOGRAPHS

The Inspiration Machine is essentially a tube which presents the user with a series of four inspirational stimuli, a combination of words, letters, images - both abstract and figurative - as well as some Egyptian hieroglyphs. These stimuli are revealed through revolving windows in independently movable paper sleeves. To use the machine, the person in need of inspiration may either think of a random number, or roll a die to generate a number. A preference for 'up' or 'down' is also either expressed or randomly generated by means of a coin toss. The first rotating sleeve is then turned the requisite number of times in the indicated direction, revealing the first of the inspirational stimuli. This process is repeated until all four windows have revealed a stimulus. It is then up to the user to interpret those stimuli in whatever way they wish.

Here's a photo, showing the inspirational windows in series:



The following sequence of four images shows more detail of the inspirational stimuli, giving an example of the kind of inspiration that may be produced by random turning. Apologies for the poor focusing, blame the camera man. I will describe what each window shows, just to clarify.


The first stimulus (above) is verbal. It presents the words RACE MIND in blue, overwritten with yellow letters that can be read either as CHIN ANT or CHINA NT, or however the user wishes.


The second stimulus (above) is visual, representing a sail boat on the sea.


The third stimulus (above) shows a pair of hieroglyphs. The first is suggestive of a pair of tongs, the second of a hook of some kind.



The fourth stimulus (above) shows butterflies and flowers, etc..

You get the idea.

Obviously, it's up to the user how loosely or literally the various stimuli are interpreted. They are intended to work in conjunction with the imagination of the user, who is expected to open his or her mind to the possibilities suggested. For example the sail boat on the sea could plant the seed of a journey of some kind, the precise nature of which is left up to the user. Or it could literally inspire a story about taking a boat to sea.

I'll post some more permutations again soon.

The Inspiration Machine.

My ten year old daughter is in an inventors' club at school. She spends most of her spare time jotting down ideas for inventions, and the rest of it trying to actually make them. She says she's quite good at coming up with inventions but what she finds hard is thinking of problems people might have that need solving (by means of a new invention). So she is always asking us to tell her the problems we face in our lives, so she can think of an invention to help us.

Yesterday I gave her a few of my own problems to work on. I was trying to think of things that might conceivably be solved by something a 10 year old could invent and successfully make. That turned out to be a big mistake, because when I stopped patronising her and told her a real live problem - one that I was convinced would be impossible to solve - her face lit up immediately and she said: "I can invent something for that!"

The problem I gave her was the difficulty of coming up with ideas for stories.

Her invention, which seemed to pop fully conceived into her mind, was an "Inspiration Machine".

She seemed to have a pretty good idea of how she was going to solve this and straightaway rushed off to get the materials she needed, without even sketching a blueprint.

The first thing required was a long cardboard tube, the kind you find inside rolls of wrapping paper. We'd taken all our cardboard to the recycling centre so we didn't have any old ones hanging around. No problem. Only the day before, her mum had bought a new roll of birthday paper, which now - with Dad's controversial consent - no longer has an inner tube.

The next thing was to cut some paper into 12cm wide strips, make some mysterious marks on the cardboard tube, and then ponder the question, "How am I going to do this?" This last part, the pondering, took the longest time.

It was at that point that my help was enlisted, but I have to say that my role was purely as a technician. The concept and design for the Inspiration Machine came totally from my daughter. We discussed how it was to work and what needed to happen. She had very precise requirements and I suggested a few ways they could be achieved.

It then came to creating a prototype. My daughter got busy with the important part - programming the machine with inspiration, while I produced the mundane mechanical elements necessary.

It didn't take long to put it together and put it to the test. To our amazement it worked!

I mean it really did work, and in ways which neither of us had imagined possible. It has certainly helped me, because today I was inspired to write 1,000 words, a target I haven't hit since I began work on this new novel.

In the next blog post I will describe how The Inspiration Machine works and I may even provide a photo.