Join Through A Third
Put no force on the pair; work only on the third element, and stop when it holds them without you.
Formerly Emulsify
Egg yolk binding oil and vinegar into mayonnaise.
Seen in Tehching Hsieh and Linda Montano, Art/Life One Year Performance 1983–1984 (Rope Piece)
Try it on your work
Combine two incompatible materials or components so they function together, knowing they'd separate if left alone, then add the thing that keeps them bound. Stop when it holds unattended for a day. Name the binder; it's usually the design.
Write one paragraph in which two registers that repel each other (technical and intimate, legal and funny) are both fully present, sentence by sentence, until neither reads as an intrusion.
Run two working modes that normally alternate (fast and careful, open and closed) inside the same single session, interleaved by rule. The rule that made it possible is a new capacity, not a compromise.
How it has been used
Two things that won't mix will often both hold to a third: oil and water take to egg; two feuding collaborators take to a shared deadline. Find the third element. The move forbids forcing the pair directly: the work goes into the go-between, not into the incompatibles.
Where it leads
Grouped under Put different things into contact