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Lesson 22

Repurposing for Novel Functions: An Exaptation Analysis

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Introduction

Welcome to your final lesson in Module 3. Last time, we explored how Error can be a powerful catalyst for innovation, forcing us to question our assumptions and explore new paths when things go wrong.

Today, we'll analyse Exaptation, the final concept in your LAPS SEE mnemonic. Exaptation is a fascinating and powerful source of creativity that builds on the ideas of serendipity and error we've already discussed. It describes how a tool, trait, or concept developed for one purpose can be repurposed for a completely new and unexpected function. While error forces us to look for new solutions, exaptation is often the mechanism by which we find them—by looking at the world around us and asking, "What else can this do?"

Your learning outcome is to analyse exaptation by identifying how existing tools or concepts can be repurposed for novel functions. We'll define the concept, explore the different ways it manifests, and then apply this analysis to a challenge in your field of lingerie design.

1. From Biology to Technology: Defining Exaptation

The term "exaptation" was coined by evolutionary biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba to describe a crucial evolutionary mechanism that is distinct from adaptation. While adaptation involves the gradual refinement of a trait for its current function, exaptation is a radical shift where a trait evolved for one reason is co-opted for a completely different use.

To get a clear grasp of this idea, let's watch a brief clip from author Steven Johnson.

Where Good Ideas Come From - Steven Johnson

In this video, 'Where Good Ideas Come From,' Steven Johnson provides a concise definition of exaptation and illustrates it with two classic examples.

Please watch from 02:00 to 03:44. Pay close attention to: The definition of exaptation as a trait selected for one purpose that becomes useful in a totally different field (02:00 - 02:22). The biological example of feathers, which evolved for warmth but were exapted for flight (02:22 - 02:36). The technological example of the printing press, where Gutenberg exapted the screw press from winemaking to print Bibles (02:46 - 03:44).

As Johnson explains, the history of innovation is filled with these functional shifts. The key distinction is:

  • Adaptation: Improving a thing for its known purpose (e.g., making a wing more aerodynamic).
  • Exaptation: Finding a new purpose for an existing thing (e.g., using feathers, originally for warmth, to fly).

This repurposing is a cornerstone of creativity, allowing us to make surprising leaps forward by recombining what already exists in novel ways.

2. The Anatomy of Exaptation: Where to Look for New Uses

If exaptation is so powerful, how do we spot these opportunities? They aren't always obvious. Innovation often comes from looking beyond an object's intended function and analysing its underlying properties.

A helpful framework distinguishes between repurposing intentional features and repurposing unintentional by-products.

Emerging Futures: Vol 43 - Defining Exaptations

This article from Emergent Futures Lab, 'Defining Exaptations,' offers a detailed breakdown of the different types of exaptations. This will give us a more structured way to analyse them.

Please read the following sections from the article: 'Defining the Exaptives': Focus on the formal definitions of Adaptation and Exaptation. 'Intentional Features' (and its sub-section 'Unintended Effects'): Understand how we can co-opt an object's intended features for a new, but often pre-existing, purpose (e.g., using a coffee mug as a pen holder). 'Unintended Features': This is the most crucial section. Pay close attention to the distinction between 'Necessary Physical By-Products' (like architectural spandrels) and 'Chance Physical By-Products' (like broken shards).

Let's summarise the analytical framework this gives us:

  • Type 1: Repurposing an Intentional Feature.

    • This involves taking a feature designed for a specific purpose and using it for another.
    • Example: Using the strong, hollow form of a coffee mug (designed to hold liquid) to hold pens.
    • Analysis: This is the most common form of creative repurposing, but it often plugs an existing object into a known functional slot. It's useful but may not lead to radical innovation.

  • Type 2: Repurposing an Unintentional Feature.

    • This is often where truly novel ideas emerge. These features exist as side effects of the original design.
    • Necessary By-products ("Spandrels"): These are unavoidable side effects of a design choice. The classic example is the triangular space (a spandrel) created when placing a circular dome on square arches. This space wasn't the goal, but it became a prime location for art.
    • Chance By-products: These result from accident or error. The shards of a broken pot might be repurposed as mosaic tiles. This connects directly to our last lesson on learning from error.

To be innovative, you must learn to see not just what an object is for, but also what its properties are, including its unintended "spandrels."

3. The Cognitive Process of Exaptation

Seeing these hidden affordances requires a shift in perspective. An academic paper on "Aesthetic Exaptation" provides a fascinating model for how these shifts happen at a cognitive level. It suggests that exaptation isn't just a random flash of insight but can emerge from structured cognitive processes.

[PDF] Mechanisms of Aesthetic Exaptation in Artefact Design:

This paper, 'Mechanisms of Aesthetic Exaptation in Artefact Design,' is quite academic, but it contains two powerful concepts for how we mentally connect ideas to create an exaptation.

Please read the section 'Analysis: Building a Process Model of Cognition and Exaptation' (starting around page 24). You don't need to absorb all the details of the case study. Focus on understanding the definitions of the two key processes identified at the end of the section: Radial Association: A process where a central feature's properties are used to re-configure and absorb adjacent features into a new whole. Orthogonal Association: A process where a new perspective (like an axis or sight line) reveals a novel relationship (like symmetry or contrast) between previously unconnected features.

This gives us two analytical tools to describe how an exaptive link might be made:

  • Radial Association: You start with a core property (e.g., the sound waves from a speaker) and re-imagine everything around it in relation to that property, leading to a new configuration. It’s like saying, "If this is the center, what does everything else become?"
  • Orthogonal Association: You impose a new external framework or perspective (e.g., a visual axis) onto a set of objects. This new perspective can reveal relationships of complementarity or conflict that were previously invisible, suggesting a new arrangement or function. It’s like saying, "If I look at these things from this new angle, what new pattern do I see?"

4. Application: Exaptation in Bra Design

Now, let's apply this multi-layered analysis to your domain. This exercise will focus on using exaptation to solve a design problem for a cleavage-enhancing bra.

Scenario:
A client wants a revolutionary cleavage-enhancing bra. Their requirements are strict:

  • It must provide significant lift and a "push-together" effect.
  • It must be exceptionally comfortable for all-day wear.
  • It must not use traditional underwires, which they find painful.

Your task is to use the principles of exaptation to generate a novel solution.

Analysis & Design Exercise (Approx. 20 minutes):

  1. Identify a Candidate for Exaptation: Choose a material, technology, or concept from a field completely unrelated to lingerie. Examples could include:

    • Medical technology (e.g., surgical adhesives, prosthetics)
    • Sports equipment (e.g., kinetic tape, compression fabrics)
    • Botany (e.g., the structure of a leaf, the mechanics of a Venus flytrap)
    • Architecture (e.g., cantilever beams, tensile structures)

  2. Analyse its Properties: Using the framework from the "Defining Exaptations" article, break down your chosen item:

    • What is its primary, intentional function and what features support it?
    • What are its unintended features? Are there any necessary by-products ("spandrels") or properties that are incidental to its main purpose? (e.g., a material might be strong and also hypoallergenic as a by-product of its manufacturing process).

  3. Propose the Exaptation: Describe how one or more of these properties (especially the unintended ones) could be repurposed to solve the client's bra design problem. Explain how this new application would work. Be specific about how it provides lift and cleavage without an underwire.

  4. Analyse the Cognitive Pathway: Reflect on how you arrived at this idea using the concepts from the design paper. Was your thinking closer to:

    • Radial Association? (Did you focus on a core property like "tension" and re-imagine the bra structure around it?)
    • Orthogonal Association? (Did you apply an external concept, like "biomechanical support," to the components of a bra to see a new way they could work together?)

Please write out your analysis for these four steps.

Conclusion

Today we've unwrapped the concept of exaptation, seeing it as a key driver of radical innovation. By looking beyond an object's intended use and analysing its hidden properties and unintended by-products, we can discover entirely new functions.

Key Takeaways:

  • Exaptation is the repurposing of a feature for a new function it was not originally designed or selected for.
  • The most novel ideas often arise from exapting unintended features—the necessary by-products ("spandrels") or chance occurrences of a design.
  • Identifying exaptive opportunities is a cognitive skill that involves breaking functional fixedness and applying new perspectives, through processes like radial and orthogonal association.

With exaptation, you have completed the LAPS SEE mnemonic (Liquid Networks, Adjacent Possible, Platforms, Slow Hunches, Serendipity, Error, Exaptation), giving you a comprehensive toolkit for understanding where good ideas come from.

In our next module, we will shift our focus from generating ideas to implementing them. We'll begin with the Foundations of Systems Thinking, exploring the fundamental building blocks of complex systems—stocks, flows, and feedback loops. Understanding these concepts is essential for navigating the challenges that arise when new ideas meet the real world.