do the iPod shuffle

Joab Jackson republished a book review on Steven Levy's new book 'The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness' on AlterNet. While the book and the review go into larger areas of interest and thought on commerce, culture and cool, one thing jumped out at me.

Joab Jackson writes: 'Here's a handy little trick from the artist's proverbial toolbox: Whenever you find yourself slogging through some new creative endeavor and the results just aren't working, break the work into discrete components and rearrange them in some random fashion. Better yet, have them rearranged by some external process beyond your control.'

While this comment might be considered tongue-in-cheek he does have a point. There are several times in the artistic process when it helps to walk away from a project, or mix it all up to find new connections in the work. When I edit audio for multimedia projects for example, I really work to not follow the linear line of how the sound was captured. The best storytelling more often than not, breaks out of the 'order' and puts different pieces together that tells the story in a better way.

Take the time to read Joab Jackson's piece and see what jumps out at you and prompts you to start thinking 'outside the box.'