Lego prodigy?
March 11, 2012Yesterday Phil participated in a “Lego Build” competition at his school. Each kid was given the same Lego set (product number 5929, with parts for a medieval castle scene) and told to be creative rather than following the set’s instructions. Despite being at the young end of the 5- to 8-year-old age group, Phil won this division! The judges praised his “innovative, almost transgressive transmutation of the iconic Lego medium.”
New Yorker film critic and writer Anthony Lane has a very good essay on Lego (available in his collection, Nobody’s Perfect). Among other things, he talks about how all the specialized Lego sets discourage creativity because they’re only designed to build one thing. Well done to Phil and the other kids for pushing back against that.