Do You Chindogu?

Bacon-Stix – real bacon fake nails were a big hit in the Herons.

Chindogu is the Japanese art of "useless" inventions. I put "useless" in quotations because the rules of the art form is that the invention be of use to someone because it solves a problem (even if it's a very little problem.) Similar to origami's rules about cutting and taping, Chindogu inventions follow specific guidelines. In Japan, there are books filled with Chindogu and Chindogu clubs where people share their inventions. I have a few of the books in the Herons and they were discovered early in the year by the students. We decided to try our hand at creating a few.

First we brainstormed lots of problems we encountered in our daily lives. Then, we created solutions to many of those problems. We didn't critique ideas at this point, we just wrote down as many as we could. Students chose a promising idea from this brainstorm to sketch, write about and, in some cases, create a prototype of.

I likened the invention process to a funnel – you start as broadly as possible and then narrow down your ideas as you move through the process. Some students found this funneling process challenging. They had an idea from the very beginning and they wanted to go with it. That was O.K. — but many found that when they hit a bump (flagging enthusiasm, something that didn't work) they had a much harder time finding a second idea. Many went back to brainstorming problems so they could have more fertile ground with which to work.

We worked hard to capture the voice used in the Chindogu books. It's a mix between a scientific journal and a late night T.V. advertisement – big words mixed with a lot of breathless "but wait, there's mores!" Mimicking a writer's tone is a great way to develop one's own writing and it fit nicely with the lessons we've been doing on craft during writer's circles.

Photo-63 Today we made our last big push to get our inventions up in the Heron Chindogu Hall of Fame. Many students had time to create a prototype – including one who was very excited to install her bin organizer so that she'd "never lose another paper!" We're hoping to put some of our inventions on line, too. If you have a chance, come by and check it out.