Children are natural geniuses of Mixology. A lovely example of the Mixology Cycle at work is found in children's passion for collecting seashells.
Collecting: On a family vacation, a child goes along the beach and picks up seashells that they like for whatever reason at all. No one tells them to do it, they just do.
Mixing: Children are mixing engines by default! The seashells get put in pockets, boxes, a shelf, the garden, or in a desk drawer at home. Some shells get mixed up with the previous year’s haul, some are dropped while showing parents, some go to school, some go Grandmas’ house, some get given away, some get lost between the seats in the car. Ten seconds after collecting, children are mixing their collections, and they just keep mixing. It can't be helped ! Try to keep it from happening! Try to design a child who doesn’t mix things. 😊 Children are mixing engines by default!
Surfacing: The child wants to show a friend their favorite shells on the Saturday after the vacation, and they bring out what they can find from the trip, whatever is near to hand, whatever they haven't forgotten, whatever hasn't gotten LOST. Then, if they want to show another friend on Sunday, it is usually a somewhat different set of shells. But they don't care! They are chaotic, fluid, improvising, energetic and inspired presenters! In mixology parlance, they surface remixed collections of things all the time. Try and stop them!
And if you try to make the child present the EXACT SAME set of seashells over and over again they probably would be too bored to do it. It is often not "what" is presented, but the act of presenting, showing, sharing, bragging, that matters! Children want SOMETHING to share, show and tell about. The more SOMETHINGS that they have collected and mixed up, the more sharing-surfaces they can create. Children are surfacing addicts!
That's it. Mixology cycle: Collecting, Mixing, Surfacing. Child’s play!
[concept fields: [children as mixologists, play, seashell mixology, Mixology Cycles, sharing, curation, self-curation, collecting (mixology), mixing processes, design the opposite, mixing (mixology), surfacing (mixology)]
If you would like to reference this page, here is an APA Style citation:
Smith, T. (2026). Collecting Seashells - Mixology. Small-Infinities. https://small-infinities.com/surfaces/collecting-seashells-mixology