Mashup Magic

I love a good mashup. Both the expected and the unexpected kind. The challenge in this post is to know them, seek them out, and share their magic from time to time…

I define a mashup as two things (objects, ideas, or experiences) that come together to form something new—a new thing, a new insight, or a new opportunity…

Sometimes a mashup is common and the results are expected, like peanut butter and jelly. You could have one or the other on a piece of bread, but it's salty-sweet magic when you put the two together. That’s a mashup that dates back to 1901!

Sometimes a mashup is uncommon and the results are a surprise, like a treadmill desk. Someone right now is cranking out emails and getting their steps in, all at the same time. Thanks to Dr. Levine and his research in the early 2000s at the Mayo Clinic on the harmful effects of the sedentary lifestyle, this mashup created a new alternative to help those sitting all day to, “Get Up!”. Life happens, and two seemingly unrelated things come together and what comes from it…works. Or in this case…works you out. Someone else may be doing work on a treadmill desk while snacking on a PB&J, unknowingly participating in a centennial super mashup celebration. Impressive.

I like to think of mashups as a daily dose of improvisation. How can we enhance our creativity and find new ideas or new perspectives by putting two things together? With a little extra attention, I wonder what mashup might we create or observe today. How might we get better at noticing the nuance and beauty of the things all around us? Mashups can help us focus on these things.

Want to practice? Let’s start by thinking of two things that are related but different. Here is an example I use all of the time. If you are creating a program for students ask yourself two questions to kick off some creativity. What do your students want? What do your students need? The answers are related, but they might be very different. Now practice with some improv. Pull out one random answer from each of those two questions and brainstorm a creative mashup. If you are new to this exercise I’d suggest grabbing two totally different things to explore how they might connect. If you can get comfortable freeing up your thoughts to connect two very different things, you can get yourself to connect almost anything. If the two things are too obviously connected it won’t stretch your capacity for creativity enough.

Here is a specific example of how this shakes out. Once I was walking someone through this exercise and they said their students needed financial education and wanted shoes. All they talked about was shoes. So we explored how to connect the two and teach financial literacy with shoes. Buy low, sell high. Budget and buy X, chip away save for Y, and maybe to pay rent you have to rethink or resell Z. In just a few minutes of brainstorming, it started to make sense. It was unexpected, but the mashup worked and the idea juices were flowing to develop a creative approach to learning.

Sometimes the wilder the mashup activity is the easier it is to play. Just have fun with it. How about this? What do landscaping and rock music have in common? I don’t know! For some reason, those were the first two random things that came to my mind. Let’s just go with it, and find some spontaneous connections. Maybe you notice, when you keep up with the watering, how your flowers seem to always hit the right note and lift your spirits. Or maybe you notice how the neglected birdbath in the corner of your backyard seems to collect dust like your old albums. It's hard to find a CD player, or a birdbath, these days. Or maybe you notice how your favorite tree sways in the breeze like the bobbing head of a guitar riff. Similar to what I look like while in the zone, jamming out meaningless random mashups. I’ll stop there. You get the idea. You find two things and connect them, study them, and see what comes of it. Once you get more comfortable making connections between two random things, it will be much easier to find meaning between two things you actually want to explore. Exploring mashups is about engaging in the creative process, not about producing a fine-tuned finished product. It doesn’t need to lead to something magical. But it might. Just have fun with it.

NOTE: A week ago the above read somewhat differently. I came back to it and made some edits, which is allowed with mashups, after all it took 7 years of experimentation before the treadmill desk hit the market. But, honestly, mashups are more fun when they feel like campfire stories, where you “one time” on top of “one time” laughing at the absurdity of it all. That’s what I mean by having fun with it. Edited versions are fine but if you are anything like me, the more edits you make to your “improv” the the more you second guess your thoughts and the harder it gets to share it with anyone else. Part of the beauty of improvisation, and mashup experimentation is that it’s not supposed to initially make sense.

Ultimately, a mashup is a creative exercise to make connections. It allows you to see something from a new angle. It helps us slow down and study the details of an object or an idea or an experience. It helps us pay attention. That’s where the magic is.

I’ll share more examples in future AP Updates, but what are your favorite mashups? How might you practice and appreciate the art of mashups in your life?