Lego Blog: Disordered

Automatic Building

Lego continues to hold a magical sway over me, even when I can only use the bricks within arm’s reach. Sometimes this happens because I’ve been enpickulated (trapped by Merly), other times it is the result of my natural laziness. I think there’s a lot of value in the random, purposeless building. It’s like automatic writing, or blind painting – you let go and allow the patterns and shapes that reside in your mind to find expression through one medium or other. I guess with Lego more structure is imposed than with drawing, but on the other hand we’re (probably) expanding out in multiple directions. I like that. It feels… like it has potential.

Now whether you attach meaning to those loose-minded rambles in word, ink or brick is a different matter I reckon. I’m sure psychologists have much to say on the subject. I feel it’s more that we identify a pattern of some kind and follow it. It feels like the natural and right thing to do – pursue and promote the pattern; to break the pattern might feel like rejection. That already might be reading too much into it.

Shuffle Heap

I need to reassemble my travelling Lego case. It’s for lunchtimes and train travel… Tricky to get yourself a decent mixture of Lego though. Usually I dismantle a couple of small-medium kits and use the resulting brick broth for joy. If I don’t have that option I’ll just go for what’s in reach. As I haven’t sorted the stuff from home I just swept the top layer into a tray and reclined. And kept adding bits… But I ended up with a weird stressed structure- it’s interesting to see how far bricks can be stretched and bent!

While it’s not a build I especially wanted to continue- the jumble is too jumbled to ever have been a proper building, but it has made me think about damaged stonework in a different way. It’s also lead me to disassemble it and begin again. This time with more bricks of course. And yeah, I think those are supposed to be flamethrowers. I’m not sure why.

Related articles

• Lego Blog: Lego Memories (captainpigheart.com)
• Lego Blog: Lunchtime Building (captainpigheart.com)