Tag: Lego

Monument Valley
News

Monument Valley’s illusory architecture could become a Lego set

Monument Valley (2014) and Lego. It just feels right, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s that the puzzle game’s isometric perspective gives us the privileged view of god games, in which we build and destroy. Or perhaps more simply it’s the attention the game draws towards it brightly colored geometric mazes, eager for us to prod and spin them. Either way, there’s something about Monument Valley that makes it ripe for a transformation into modular Lego blocks. Now, there’s actually a chance of that happening. The first step towards this end goal has been made through the proposal of a Monument Valley set over…
News

Dedicated LEGO fans build an impressive animated Sisyphus sculpture

When I first saw JK Brickworks’ “Sisyphus Kinetic Sculpture,” I was floored by how smoothly it moved. My primary experience with LEGO, like many, was as a stationary medium, and yet here I saw a piece of art made entirely out of LEGO bricks moving with the fluidity of a Disney animation. As I was to discover on JK Brickworks’ site, this immediate comparison is no accident, as the project was inspired by a 3D modeling program from Disney Research that allows both artists and non-experts alike to plan out mechanical characters in a virtual space before constructing them in…
Bricksy: Unauthorized Underground Brick Street Art
News

Banksy gets Banksy-er with the addition of LEGO

Maybe photographer Jeff Friesen is Banksy. I don’t have any real reason to believe that this is the case, but all Banksy-adjacent content should include some unfounded speculation about the mysterious artist’s true identity, so that’s my duty dispensed with. Here’s something I know for a fact about Friesen: He has put together a book entitled Bricksy: Unauthorized Underground Brick Street Art. The $15 tome features 84 Lego scenes, each of which is based on one of Banksy’s works. Friesen has some priors in this regard. The Canadian photographer’s last book, United States of LEGO®: A Brick Tour of America,…
News

It’s okay. Lego was never your friend anyway

Corporations are not your friends. Case in point: Lego recently refused to ship a bulk order to artist Ai Weiwei citing a longstanding policy of not directly providing pieces to those who seek to make political statements. Ai took to Instagram to declare: “Lego’s refusal to sell its product to the artist is an act of censorship and discrimination.” The more charitable interpretation of Lego’s actions, most eloquently voiced by Jay Ong, is that Lego wasn’t meaningfully restricting Ai’s freedom to make art since there are plenty of other places to buy in bulk. No matter how you look at…
News

Bloxels charts a course between physical and virtual game-making

The act of prototyping a game is a game in its own right. It involves the conceptualizing of space and the solving of puzzles. So why not just turn prototyping into a game? the best of both worlds  Bloxels, which is currently halfway to its fundraising goal on Kickstarter, takes this thought to its logical conclusion. It allows you to layout levels using blocks on a physical gameboard, photograph that board with your mobile device, and then turn that layout into a fully realized game. These games—or, more accurately, levels—can be shared with friends. Moreover, as a player passes through…
News

Let’s all leave this cold world and live in a LEGO house together

This week marked the groundbreaking of the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, a massive structure that aims to be a sort of futuristic Mecca for Lego lovers, design nuts, and artists alike. The 8,500 square foot building isn’t just a building made of LEGOs or a building made to look like it’s made of LEGOs. According to LEGO Group themselves, the LEGO House should be “one place where you can experience the LEGO story and be inspired by the endless possibilities of the LEGO brick.” The building itself is designed by Bjarke Ingels of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. Ingels recently designed…