This may seem like a little bit of a weird one to most people, it’s certainly a light hearted one in comparison to the last entry, but I’ve genuinely thought for some time now that Lego is the monster.
It’s a genuine beast, out in the open it can take almost any form, but it can hide and go unnoticed in your home, it can be art, it can make you laugh, it can shock you and leave you in awe. It can pre-occupy you for days, absorbing all your mental, physical and emotional strength or it can distract you for that vital second. It can be motionless and undetectable or it can have motion, sensors, engines and run wild. It’s a mixture of colour or one solid fill, smooth on one side course on the other, some times it’s rounded and others it’s sharp edges can make your fingers go numb. It can imitate the most serine figures or replicated the most gigantic structures. It can be self replicating and constructing, is recyclable and demands a gigantic, yet miniature in every way, manufacturing process. It can be a moon-base or a dragon. It’s simple, it’s often all consuming, and you love it.
Lego; rarely has there been a better invention, and for all the reasons stated above, it is a genuine beast, a monster. The Brick Brothers are certainly some gents that might agree, running a most excellent blog on the topic, their latest post, to me, really shows why Lego is the monster, it’s simple, to the point and with one of the most awesome quotes related to Lego I’ve ever read.
“Alex Eylar’s “Old Hollywood” evokes the noir detective movies of the 1950s.”
It’s more than just a toy, it can evoke meaning and context as wide ranging as detective movies from the 1950’s though to modern day sculpture with the likes of Nathan Sawaya’s work, which by the way, is most extra-ordinary.
It’s such an emotive product, the brand and what it can do has so many connotations, from building your first little structure when you’re a child, to helping your children with their first little structure, it’s a product for all ages and for any time anywhere. You can take a few bricks, make a little gift, take a million bricks and build a town. It’s emotional and it inspires. This picture of the giant Lego man that appeared randomly on a beach, the artist Ego Leonard used the product as a promotional tool for a creative art campaign, and how did it inspire, it went viral, encroaching on thousands for just a second and splitting a smile one summer day in August 2007.
I honestly can’t think of any bad, terrible or otherwise ‘un-brilliant’ context or situation for Lego, perhaps that one agonisingly frustrating moment when your hand slips and the fruits of your efforts literally crumble in your hands, but then again when that happens, you get to start all over again!
The brand and product though quite literally encroached on a huge variety of every day circumstances. Lets explore a little bit.
We have Lego ice trays, as demonstrated by the Crave blog.
Here we have some Lego furniture in the form of a fully functional, and malleable sofa from Gearfuse.
Some Lego salt and pepper shakers perhaps, from Gizmodo?
Lego jewellery for the exceptionally cool from Uncrate.
Or maybe a Geodesic dome for exhibition perposes, as demonstrated by ZEMI.
Oh and how can we forget the White Stripes – Fell In Love with a Girl music video.
To name but a few instances of it’s existence in our everyday lives. I hope for one day when everything is made from Lego, the Lego Singularity. Perhaps that’s where the hidden agenda lies? Lego has set out on a masterful, dooms day-esque plan of world domination, in which, everything eventually is made from Lego, including new people. Or probably they just want us to be infinitely entertained, inspired, creative, loving, interested and active minds. I’m not sure which one is better.
Lego is the monster.
To Become A Monster 