Color in the cracks of the city

March 6, 2013 5:30 AM

Lego Bombing and the Art of Infrastructure: "Oftentimes the displays are little more than attempts at drawing the eye or conveying a message. Sometimes, though, the two combine to great effect, pointing out glaring, gaping holes in the world around us. In the case of Lego Bombing, as it has become known, those holes -- and therefore, that art -- crop up in our crumbling infrastructure. The colorful plastic blocks are being snapped into walls, streets, and buildings all over the world courtesy of Dispatchwork."
posted by jammy (21 comments total)

Someone Lego bombed I-79 in WV on Sunday.
posted by I'm Doing the Dishes at 5:54 AM on March 6 [4 favorites]

I CAN SEE THE MATRIX.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 6:09 AM on March 6 [2 favorites]

I'm more interested in whether the boy got his Lego bricks back after the cleanup!
posted by Sweetmag at 6:16 AM on March 6 [2 favorites]

As someone with a 9-year old son who is more obsessed with LEGO than a cat with a laser pointer, I find myself really enjoying the whimsy of these fixes, but also shocked because that LEGO is so expensive.
posted by One Hand Slowclapping at 6:32 AM on March 6 [6 favorites]

I find myself really enjoying the whimsy of these fixes, but also shocked because that LEGO is so expensive.

Yeah, no kidding. If I saw this in my town my first reaction would be "Hey, free Lego!"
posted by bondcliff at 6:34 AM on March 6 [2 favorites]

EBay.
posted by Artw at 6:34 AM on March 6

Lego can be had for cheap. There are several places online where you can buy them in bulk for a few cents per brick. But there are sometimes minimum orders. I know this because I am awaiting shipment of 90-odd bits of Lego. I had two mismatched classic Space wings (large left rear, small right front) left over from when I was small; I was tired of my 3.5 yr old son trying unsuccessfully to make planes with them because they just won't match. So I ordered matches for them. And added a crapton of other random bricks to make up the minimum (more car parts, mostly, along with a few special odds and ends to match some other singletons I had left over from childhood).

Without buying rare, specialty pieces, it is remarkably hard to make the minimum $8 order when adding bricks that cost an average of 5¢ each.

All this could have been avoided had my dad not sold all of my Lego for $20 at a yard sale when I was off at college. There were 1979-vintage crater plates in there! Two of them! Those things are selling used for $20 EACH now. I have resolved never to sell my son's Lego sets. If they ever get disposed of, it will be on his shoulders, not mine.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:46 AM on March 6 [6 favorites]

This is cool. I don't know why they say bombing when it looks more like reconstruction.
posted by three blind mice at 6:50 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]

They could be Mego-Bloks...

Ugh... Mego-Bloks.
posted by Artw at 6:51 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]

That unfinished mall/boondoggle in the Meadowlands looks like it was made out of legos (and not in a good way).
posted by schmod at 7:07 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]

I would love to do this in my USA town, but I would probably get arrested for it.
posted by scose at 7:45 AM on March 6 [1 favorite]

This is cool. I don't know why they say bombing when it looks more like reconstruction.
posted by three blind mice at 6:50 AM on March 6 [+] [!]

Bombing comes from the whole "guerilla" idea and culture of street art. In this case, yeah, it's pretty ironic because you're causing the opposite of what an actual bomb would cause. But the phrase is not solely used for Lego street art. There's also yarn bombing.
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:46 AM on March 6

But yarn bombing actually makes sense. It's usually a tree or parking meter or bike lock that gets bombed by yarn.

The best ones here are the ones where the Lego fills in a huge crack. It sorta fails when it's a bomb, e.g. wrapped around rocks. So yeah, bad term. I prefer the far more brandable InfraLEGO™.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:04 AM on March 6

Can someone please invent a lego sorter machine? I want to be able to send my legos to some factory, have it sort and log my bricks, then go online and select which lego products I want based on what can be built. Then the factory bags them with instructions and mails it back. Surely a robot that does this can be invented? Extra credit if the robot is also made out of legos.
posted by Crash at 8:41 AM on March 6 [7 favorites]

Lego axle sorter. It's only for one class of pieces, but I guess it's a start.
posted by yoink at 9:40 AM on March 6 [3 favorites]

I hope people won't do this to any TRUELY old structures, because it could damage them instead of help them. Otherwise, carry on!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:15 AM on March 6

This seems like a fantastic *idea*, but eh, I'm not sure that I wouldn't be arrested if I tried it and I'm too much of a wuss to attempt it because of that fact.
posted by Faintdreams at 11:20 AM on March 6

But yarn bombing actually makes sense. It's usually a tree or parking meter or bike lock that gets bombed by yarn.

As opposed to giving a scarf or toque to the homeless guy down the street.
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:37 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]

Architects have lego-bombed my city in the past few years. So ugly
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 2:32 PM on March 6 [2 favorites]

So ugly

One man's ugly is another man's cute as all get out. I just love that children's hospital.
posted by yoink at 2:56 PM on March 6

Architects have lego-bombed my city in the past few years. So ugly
posted by Pruitt-Igoe

Do I have to say it?
posted by a halcyon day at 4:18 PM on March 6 [2 favorites]