Invert
Name the hidden assumption, then build its opposite; stop once the opposite stands up on its own.
Rewrite every house rule as its opposite.
Seen in Mary Flanagan, [domestic], 2003
Try it on your work
Make the opposite of the thing in front of you: what is big becomes small, what is fixed becomes loose, what comes first comes last. Stop when every major feature has flipped, then write the list of what you had to identify in order to oppose it.
Find the rules your project obeys, stated or unstated, and rewrite each as its opposite. Read the inverted rulebook aloud and mark the one inversion that sounds accidentally better.
Take one decision already made and build the version where it went the other way, far enough to describe in five sentences. Add one line on what the original was quietly assuming.
How it has been used
Build the opposite of what's in front of you: the Situationists re-captioned adverts, Mary Flanagan built shooter games with the violence turned to mourning. You can only construct an opposite by first finding what the original quietly assumes. The move forces you to name the assumption before you're allowed to flip it.
Where it leads
Grouped under Change what it is