Huh?

 

 

One of the characteristics of creative artistic thinking is to make non-linear connections that are less obvious, and when they are, spin them in such a way to make them novel.

More conservative thinkers tend to think in a linear path, such that skipping directly from point A to point H cannot be possible without first proceeding sequentially from B through G. Creativity depends on the ability to bridge (or "wormhole") those gaps so that the viewer can easily cross them, or interpolate two disparate entities separated by gaps in knowledge, traditions, ideas, objects, metaphors, etc.

The primary criticism of non-linear artistic behavior is that people don't "get" it. (David Lynch thrives on that.) "Off-kilter" (huh?) is a common comment about something that is not completely square with tradition and/or expectation. Preference for liking something probably isn't that much different from liking or disliking certain foods, that apparently can be genetic in origin.

For the artist, the process of making a finished work is often mired in decision-making, and the reconciling of it with the core ideas. Personally I let pieces dictate their intention, and I respond accordingly. I also push the possibility of something being generative, such that the parent ideas can keep making "offspring".

Connecting finished pieces with existing series of works also brings cohesion to a body of work, as well as the use of titles to punctuate them. Styles, traditions, imputed meanings or genre labels, get applied automatically; Issues of whether something is in accordance with general expectations of appearance is meaningless. As far as I'm concerned if something is moored in some way to existing genres it is "on-kilter", regardless of its ambiguous or cryptic qualities.

Huh is also a universal word: http://huh.ideophone.org/