Emotional Core

A creative game for changing the emotional core of an idea

There are things we believe we are thinking about, when in fact we are already feeling them.

An object, a word, a situation, a person, a problem, a possibility, an idea we do not fully understand yet.

Before analyzing it, before naming it, before deciding whether it suits us, whether we like it, whether it is useful or threatening, something happens.

It produces a sensation.

Sometimes it is enthusiasm, sometimes it is rejection, or fear, or tenderness, shame, desire, boredom, curiosity, discomfort or pleasure.

And that first sensation is not a minor detail. It is a door. An emotional door into the thing.

At ByBa, we believe creativity does not begin only when we combine, invent or solve. Very often, it begins earlier: in the way something touches us.

That is why this first ByBa Monkey is called Emotional Core.

A game for taking anything —an object, an idea, a concept, a situation, a system, a brand, a project, a pending conversation— and asking ourselves:

What do I feel first when facing this?

And then:

What would happen if I felt something else?

The starting point: the thing does not arrive alone

When something appears before us, it does not appear as pure information.

A chair is not just a chair. It can be rest, waiting, authority, punishment, conversation, tiredness, shelter.

A door is not just a door. It can be opportunity, threat, exclusion, mystery, future, surveillance.

An idea is not just an idea. It can feel ridiculous, dangerous, exciting, childish, powerful, cheesy, too big or too late.

Even a word can change completely depending on the sensation it carries.

“Routine” can sound like prison. But it can also sound like care.

“Chaos” can sound like danger. But it can also sound like fertility.

“Failure” can sound like an ending. But it can also sound like material.

That is where the game begins.

Not in the definition of the thing, but in its emotional bond with us.

The quote attributed to Stanley Kubrick says it with a precision that is very useful for this exercise:

“The truth of a thing is in the feel of it, not in the think of it.”

The truth of a thing is in how it feels, not only in how it is thought.

Emotional Core takes that idea and turns it into a creative dynamic.

The dynamic

Step 1 — Choose a thing

Choose any knowable input.

It can be something very concrete:

• a cup,
• a door,
• a bicycle,
• an app,
• a table,
• a street,
• a notebook.

Or something more abstract:

• an idea,
• a brand,
• a problem,
• a meeting,
• a decision,
• an institution,
• a system,
• a word,
• an emotional situation.

The only condition is that you can pay attention to it.

It does not have to be important. It does not have to be brilliant. It does not have to seem creative.

In fact, it often works better with things that seem neutral or worn out, because the game reveals that almost nothing is emotionally neutral when we look at it closely.

Then ask yourself:

What sensation does it produce in me first?

Do not look for an intelligent answer. Look for an honest one.

It may be fear, relief, anger, trust, boredom, desire, tenderness.

That will be its initial emotional core.

Step 2 — Change the feeling

Take that initial emotion and change it for another one.

Do not try to justify it yet. Do not try to make it reasonable. Do not try to make it “make sense”.

Pretend that the thing no longer produces fear, but joy. Or that it no longer offends you, but gives you pleasure. Or that it no longer bores you, but makes you curious.

Now you are no longer looking at the thing as it is. You are looking at the thing from another possible bond.

And a new emotional bond can produce a new version of the thing.

Step 3 — Reformulate its existence or function

Now redesign the thing from that new emotional bond.

It is not enough to say:

“Now this door gives me joy.”

You have to ask:

What would a door designed to produce joy be like? What function would it have? How would it open? What would happen before crossing it? Who would it invite? What would it promise? What gesture, sound, texture, color, rhythm or behavior would it have?

Emotion becomes the brief.

If the thing used to be functional, now it must become emotionally functional.

If you chose a meeting that makes you anxious, try turning it into a meeting that generates play.

What would change?

Maybe it would begin with an absurd question. Maybe nobody could speak while sitting down. Maybe every problem would be presented as a character. Maybe the meeting would have three possible endings. Maybe the agenda would no longer be called an agenda, but a tension map.

If you chose a notebook that makes you feel guilty because it is empty, try turning it into a notebook that generates permission.

What would change?

Maybe the first page would be badly printed on purpose. Maybe it would include factory mistakes as an invitation. Maybe it would say: “start horribly”. Maybe it would come with one page already crossed out, so you do not have to inaugurate it with solemnity.

If you chose the word “failure” and it produces shame, try turning it into a word that generates pride.

What would change?

Maybe it would no longer be called failure. Maybe it would be called “fallen prototype”. Maybe it would have a learning archive. Maybe it would be a temporary medal. Maybe it would be evidence of movement.

Scale the emotion

Once you have a first reformulation, do not stop.

Try three intensities.

Low version

The emotion appears subtly.

Example: a door that generates curiosity with a small sentence written on the frame.

Medium version

The emotion modifies the experience.

Example: a door that makes you choose between three possible paths before opening.

High version

The emotion completely dominates the thing.

Example: a door that does not lead to a place, but to a different surprise each time it opens.

This scaling helps you avoid stopping at the first idea. An emotion can be a whisper, an atmosphere or a storm.

And each intensity produces a different solution.

For Lifelong Curious people

For a curious person, Emotional Core is a way of making the familiar strange again.

Because very often we believe we already know something simply because we can name it.

Table. School. Work. Screen. Family. Time. Home. Mistake.

But the name of a thing does not exhaust its experience.

When we change the emotion from which we perceive it, the thing opens again.

The everyday recovers mystery, the obvious becomes researchable, the known stops being closed.

Emotional Core is, in that sense, a game of applied curiosity.

It does not only ask:

What is this?

It asks:

What could this become if we felt it differently?

For creative professionals

For creatives, designers, strategists, teachers, artists, innovation teams or people who work by producing ideas, Emotional Core works as a rebriefing tool.

Because very often the problem is not in the object of work, but in the emotion from which we are approaching it.

A brief can feel restrictive. But it can also feel like a game board.

A client can feel like an obstacle. But also like narrative tension.

A limitation can feel like poverty. But also like style.

A saturated category can feel like exhaustion. But also like a field full of codes ready to be twisted.

Professional creativity is not only about solving problems. It is also about altering the emotional bond with what needs to be solved.

When that bond changes, the repertoire of possible answers changes.

Mini ByBa example

Initial thing: a to-do list.

Initial sensation: overwhelm.

New feeling: adventure.

Reformulation: the list stops being an accumulation of obligations and becomes a map of micro-missions.

Low version: each task receives a more playful name. “Send email” becomes “throw a bottle into the sea”.

Medium version: tasks are grouped by type of energy. Fast missions, brave missions, strange missions, closing missions.

High version: the list becomes a small narrative board where each task unlocks a new scene of the day.

The thing did not change completely. But its emotional core did.

And when the emotional core changes, the way we move into action changes.

Emotional Core does not ask you to think better.

It asks for something earlier, less worn out and more powerful:

to feel differently in order to create differently.

Because sometimes a thing does not need a new definition. It needs a new emotion around it.

An emotion that opens it. That displaces it. That takes it out of its perceptual cage. That allows it to become something else.

That is today’s little trick:

change the feeling, and the idea begins to mutate.

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