At Uselessland; we experiment how human creativity can be encouraged and developed. In our beta, we collaborate with partners to organise idea competitions and events. One of them is a DIY-invention competition - ‘Strange Tools Going ASEAN 2023’ (STGA2023). The volunteer jury members for this competition come from different geographic locations and backgrounds. When we look at the inventions submitted, we will ask ourselves these questions:

• Does this invention solve the problem it intends to solve?
• How well does it solve the problem?
• Have we seen this solution to the problem before?
• Does it look like the solution has been through much study and thinking process?
• Note that the problem being solved does not need to be what the world should solve. It can be just any silly problem that the creator has chosen to solve.

• Are there any tools, materials, or methods that are used in an unconventional way in this invention?
• Have we seen these tools, materials, or methods used in this combination before?
• How many unusual uses are there in this invention?
• How much does this/these unusual use(s) surprise us?

• Have we seen something like this before? If not, does it remind you of something? What are the similarities between the thing and this invention?
• Have we seen this pairing of problem and solution elsewhere before?
• Have we seen this pairing of tools and materials used elsewhere before?
• How much does this invention as a whole surprise us?

Now it’s time to use our instinct, intuition, feeling, or anything outside our logical rationale to score the inventions. We’ll just ask ourselves “how creatively strange is this tool?”.

A submission with a prototype shows that the invention has probably been through lots of thinking, effort, and experiments with tools, materials, and methods. It is likely that the invention will get higher scores in some categories.

Practice

Have a look at these inventions and try to answer the questions.

Screen Addiction Cap
[ See Details ]

• Does this invention solve the problem it intends to solve?
• How many unusual uses are there in this invention?

Nail Biting Glove
[ See Details ]

• Have we seen this pairing of problem and solution elsewhere before?
• Have we seen these tools, materials, or methods used in this combination before?

Office Problems Neck Pillow
[ See Details ]

• Does it look like the solution has been through much study and thinking process?
• How much does this invention as a whole surprise you?

How was it? Could you answer all the questions? Were they challenging? Maybe you need to do some informal online research to answer the questions. The more you have seen, the better answers you could give. However, remember that creativity skills are personal. What is new to the creator does not need to be novel to the world. Any idea competitions are only small dots in a person’s creative journey.

In the next article, we will show you our scoring table for the STGA2023 competition. You will also be able to download it to experimentally use at home, work, or in your classrooms.