Theorizing LEGO Bricolage: Medium, Message, Method

Information sculpting

“…Some material may be more intrinsically plastic in the sense that it can be reformed more easily while other material gains plasticity through its capacity to be part of different outcomes. The classic example of the latter is LEGO, the pieces of which are hard and unmalleable but whose plasticity comes from the capacity of the blocks to be turned into vastly different final forms (Lee, 2020). This reworking is often referred to as bricolage, a form of sculpture that is based on the “creative reassembly of already‐significant elements” (Lee, 2020).…”

“…The classic example of the latter is LEGO, the pieces of which are hard and unmalleable but whose plasticity comes from the capacity of the blocks to be turned into vastly different final forms (Lee, 2020). This reworking is often referred to as bricolage, a form of sculpture that is based on the “creative reassembly of already‐significant elements” (Lee, 2020). Such mixing and remixing is a widespread phenomenon (Navas & Gallagher, 2014), in which material is transformed, reused and reconstituted to deliver new values, often through participatory processes (Munro et al, 2023).…”