Although I thought my instructions for the Surrealist game were clear, some groups of students were resistant. A lamp became a machine to attract moths. I thought that was not so much in the spirit of the game, because it is too close to the real life effect of a lamp. Headphones used to shut out outside noise...
The game works best when the professor brings in objects that look somewhat enigmatic. I have, for example a leather strap with weights designed to hold a book open. It is not obvious what it is, so the invented uses come more easily, without interference from its real use.
Another surrealist game is exquisite corpse. You can use the formula
adjective / singular noun / transitive verb / adjective / noun / adverb
The first person writes a an adjective without showing it to anyone, etc... and you get a random sentence.
The visual version: you draw a head and neck on the top third of a sheet of paper, then fold to make only the bottom lines of the neck visible. The next person draws the torso without seeing the head, and then folds again with only the tops of the legs visible.
Another is to invent imaginary definitions of words, like arugula as a sea-serpent. Paul Eluard invented that in a poem called something like "Some of the words whose meanings has been veiled to me until now". To me, the word arugula sounds much better as a mythological beast than as a vegetable.
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