Speaking of LEGOs, the lower-tech, non-Mindstorm building blocks are practically an artistic medium unto themselves in the geekiverse. There’s the lowbrow appeal of The Lego Suicides, which is sick, sick, sick performance art... and damn hilarious. You’ve got the cinephiles expressing themselves in celluloid and plastic brick at BrickFilms.com. LEGOS are perfect for sculpture, as Nathan Sawaya demonstrates at his The Art of the Brick:
Eric Harshbarger sculpts in plastic brick, too:
Someone even used LEGOs to re-create the works of M.C. Escher, which is geeky on multiple levels:
(Unfortunately, the site that spawned them seems to have disappeared.)
One of the coolest new uses for LEGOs I’ve come across recently -- which I did not find at Cool LEGO Site of the Week, since that stopped being updated in 2003 -- is as the building blocks for a Difference Engine, a kind of Victorian counting machine/very early computer. It may be emblematic of the strange hold LEGOs seem to have on geeks: they combine the creative with the mechanical, turning engineering into play.
But it’s not even like you have to be particularly mathematic to find yourself drawn to LEGOs. Numbers per se aren’t really my thing, but I’ve got a big ol’ tub of LEGOs, and I’ll play with them sometimes... although, granted, it’s mostly when there’s a kid around who needs to be entertained.
Still, I can’t explain it, but all the clear LEGO bricks this guy has for sale on eBay inspire a deep and profound lust in my heart.
