Subject:
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Re: Is Lego Art, or what?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 16 Feb 2001 19:59:27 GMT
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Viewed:
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599 times
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In lugnet.general, Jonathan Lill writes:
> Do you make things you consider art?
Yes.
> Do you consider your Lego creations artworks?
But of course :)
> Do you make things which aren't strictly speaking Lego creations but involve
> the use of bricks (i.e. multimedia collages)?
Not often, but occasionally.
> Do you call yourself an artist?
Not really-- but only because I see an artist as someone who either gets
paid for it, or devotes more time to creating 'art' than I do.
> Are you a professional in a creative field such as graphic or industrial
> design or architecture?
No, though I do create graphics/etc on occasion.
> Are you able to utilize Lego in your profession apart from merely sharing
> your enjoyment with your coworkers?
Not yet. But as soon as Mindstorms can run web-browsers or perl, I'll be
darn close :)
> If both building and playing with Lego is a creative pursuit, how does it
> differ from other creative pursuits such as painting or sculpting?
Not much. It really only differs insofar as the availability of the medium--
some parts you simply can't get anymore, some just don't exist, some are
hard to find, and they're all produced by a single company. And as such,
it's also somewhat limiting in terms of scale and detail. However, one major
plus of Lego is that it's 100% re-usable and re-constructable (assuming no
'extra' stuff like glue, paint, etc).
> I have hesitated asking these questions because I foresee the matter
> devolving into a debate of "WHAT IS ART?" But I am not interested in any
> strict definitions or in making blanket statements.
Honestly, I have to say I'm rather intreuged more by this question, but
that's just me. If anyone else is interested, FUT off-topic.debate: At a 1st
attempt, I'll say art is that which is made (in whole or in part) by one or
more people, and in which one or more people can enjoy simply by
experiencing it. In other words, if the enjoyment is ONLY from thinking
about it, it's not art-- like a complex math problem or something.
> I want to know how
> people personally feel towards what they make and how they differentiate
> their Lego activities from what they do in the rest of their life or from
> what other people do.
Actually, it's kind of interesting to see different uses of Lego itself, not
simply Lego's differences from other arts--
I think Lego creations generally fall under 1 or more of:
- mimicing "real life" [there's a lot of this]
- serving as a tool (think technic) [also quite a lot of this]
- modelling (that which 'could be' real, but isn't necessarily) [scads of this]
- emotional art (like abstract art, the minifig concentration camp, etc)
[barely any of this]
> I have read that many of the posters here are people involved with
> computers, engineers, programmers, mathematicians, etc. This makes sense as
> those fields have a lot to do with the constructive, logical, and systematic
> aspects of Lego. I have seen Lego models built by professional architects
> and they have an obvious connection as well. At the bottom of this inquiry
> is the question of what the activity of playing with Lego really consists of
> and how it is or can be integrated with one's life.
>
> Response to any of these issues would be appreciated.
> By the way, I have seen some models of museums of art in Lego bricks but I
> would be interested in seeing brick creations that are truly abstract and
> not imitations or representations of everyday, or real, objects.
I think a lot of the reason why we don't see much "true art" of this kind is
that most people who are inspired to do things like that don't choose Lego
as the medium-- it either doesn't occur to them or they find it too limiting
or expensive.
The reasons most of *us* get into it are probably:
- Nostalgia
- re-usability
o Unlike a painting, you can take it apart and build something else with it
o Also unlike some other 'arts', you can enhance it once it's complete
- the challenge of a limited medium
o A sculpture of an elephant is only as easy as your ability to carve and
envision one. In Lego, you've got to find the right pieces and use them
creatively, because they don't have an elephant piece. (yet)
- compartmentalization
o Kinda the difference between Newtonian physics and biology... It's easy to
comprehend and mentally manipulate for the right type of people. And many
of those people are similarly good at computer programming, engineering,
etc.
- ongoing inspiration
o Sure, I liked Lego, but what REALLY spun me off on my own Lego tangent was
LUGNET. Seeing other people use bricks in certain ways spaws off my own
creative ways for using those pieces-- either by copying them, enhancing
their idea, or realizing that that old 'tree' piece can be something ELSE,
and being inspired to go elsewhere with it.
At any rate, I think very few of us get into it for the same reason that I
think (I could be greatly mistaken, I'm not an artist) 'actual' artists get
into things like painting, sculpting, writing, composing, acting, etc. I
think they get into it because they have a 'vision' or an emotion that they
want to express to others, and then find the medium best suited to their
expressing that experience. If I wanted to express sadness, joy, jealousy,
etc, to 'people' in general, I don't turn to Lego. But maybe I would paint a
picture, write a poem, sing a song, or something else.
Anyway, $0.02 more to add to the pile...
DaveE
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Is Lego Art, or what?
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| I am really bored at work today so I am taking this opportunity to ask all you LUGNET people questions which have been interesting me a bit. I spend much of my time away from work making art. I consider myself, in part, an artist. Unfortunately this (...) (24 years ago, 16-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
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