BACKGROUND
Synectics is a form of creative thinking based on the synthesis of opposites to produce the unexpected which becomes a surprise or trick on the mind, such as a pencil tied in a knot. The combination of unlikely elements was part of the Surrealist art movement that emerged in the early 20th century. Pointing to the bizarre and the irrational, surrealism frees the artist to do as he or she pleases, released from the confines of what we know. It is meant to deliberately shock the viewer, like the melting watches in Salvatore Dali’s The Persistence of Memory , the burning key in Rene Magritte’s The Gradation of Fire, or the shoes with human toes in Magritte's The Red Model.