Creative sampling

Creative sampling is a technique most commonly associated with music making, such as changing the pitch of a sample which can be anything from a series of notes to sounds from toys or slamming doors, as long as it does not infringe someone else's copyrighted music. Now could this creative technique be adopted, adapted or modified for generating design ideas? For example, and using the analogy of a music making, take a specific individual element of frequencies, melodies, or lyrics as point of departure. Then change it around using techniques such as iteration, stretching or compressing. Record the process, for example, using pen and paper to create a visual map or diagram that captures the flow and development of the emerging ideas. The creative jumping-off point can be either sampling from an external source, for example, in building design, elements of wood joints, or from an internal source, say elements from your own sketchbook.