inputs/outputs

The ending of the Pixar classic Ratatouille has always resonated with me.  In the final scene, Alfredo serves his most hateful critic (the film’s antagonist) a dish which, in a very visual manner, immediately takes the critic back in time to being a child and eating his mother’s version of the same dish.  The experience is so delightful that he instantly goes from cynicism to pure bliss.

This is a valuable lesson.  Alfredo managed to turn his harshest critic into a raving fan by activating a memory and creating an emotion bond between his critic and the work.  The experience for the critic was simultaneously fresh and familiar.  We can integrate this philosophy into whatever it is we do.

If you’re a composer, what bank of past experiences are you drawing on when you write a melody?  And if you’re a computer programmer, when was the last time your user was ecstatic about a piece of software?  What type of stuffed animal should a toymaker produce to activate memories of comfort?  How should your bar look if your audience’s happy thoughts are ones of coziness?  Of crazy drunken nights?

Beyond business, we can apply this thinking to experiences such as picking out a birthday gift, having a conversation, introducing a friend to a new band…

If you know your audience well enough, you can allow them to lose themselves in your creation.  There’s no such thing as creating emotion through our work.  All we can do is stimulate.