Section 6 · Iteration & Expression

Variation

Definition

Parallel alternatives generated from the same starting point, exploring different directions without any one superseding the others. Variation is lateral: it produces breadth.

Why it matters

Committing to a direction before seeing the alternatives means committing to a first idea, which is rarely the best one. Variation is how you find out what the range even is.

Example

Five treatments of the same mark — geometric, gestural, fragmented, repeated, inverted — none of them revisions of each other.

Teaching note

Set a minimum count high enough that students exhaust their obvious ideas. The interesting work begins after the comfortable options are used up, which is usually well past where they would stop voluntarily.