Thursday, June 21, 2007

Fire spiral

Plenty of Lego sets include these flickering tongues of flame, but they are never combined together to make a larger structure.

To make this fire spiral at age six, Lego Hacker noticed that the tiny plugs at the base of each flame--perhaps leftover flashing from the molds in which the flames were cast--just happen to fit snugly between two of the flame's curved jags.

Click enough of these together in this way and you have a blazing spiral that can protect or confound Lego beings.

Pike puzzle

The pikes have little notches that can be snapped together.

Again, this is not the way the Lego company intended the pikes to be assembled, but that's what art and code hackers do: misuse their tools to create something new.

Slithering snakes

I contributed this example--again four pieces that combine to produce an unusual symmetry and stability.

Treasure Chest cross

This is one of Lego Hacker's simplest creations, created at age five. The four unhinged treasure chests make a sculptural configuration with surprising stability and symmetry.

Many code hackers are probably unhinged too, but that's another story.

Bridge of bends

This bridge, built when Lego Hacker was four years old, is his first Lego creation "outside the box." It exemplifies the Lego Hacker's ethic, which is not just to make new creations with Lego bricks, but to assemble these standard units in unstandard ways.

In this case, the rods on the ends of the little rectangles prevented them from fitting together correctly--but resulted in an arc that served as a bridge for Lego people.