The year in Lego pictures.
December 19, 2011 8:46 AM Subscribe
2011 in Lego Pictures. From the royal wedding to the death of Osama bin Laden, the English summer riots and the fall of Gaddafi, here are some of major news stories of the past 12 months captured in Lego by Flickr members.
I liked Lego as a kid, and my sons have Lego all over the house, but I'll be sorta glad when/if the whole LEGO EVERYTHING movement passes.
(eases back into rocker, puffs corncob pipe)
posted by jquinby at 9:01 AM on December 19, 2011
(eases back into rocker, puffs corncob pipe)
posted by jquinby at 9:01 AM on December 19, 2011
You know the only thing that can salvage two overplayed memes? Combining them into pure awesome, that's what.
(Note to Occupy Everything folks: recruit more dragons and mutant space beasts.)
posted by gompa at 9:14 AM on December 19, 2011
(Note to Occupy Everything folks: recruit more dragons and mutant space beasts.)
posted by gompa at 9:14 AM on December 19, 2011
I know it's been a busy year, but I feel they've missed out so much this year. Tokyo Tsunami/earthquake, Gadaffi's capture, Egyptian revolution, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a whole slew of other important things that could have been portrayed via the medium of Lego.
posted by DuchessProzac at 9:28 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by DuchessProzac at 9:28 AM on December 19, 2011
gompa: I thought the choice to use dragons and mutant space beasts in that photo dehumanizes the real-life students who were assaulted. The Lego-people getting sprayed should have the same yellow heads as their attacker. Eh, honestly I don't find the casually pepper-spraying meme funny at all.
posted by mediated self at 9:37 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by mediated self at 9:37 AM on December 19, 2011
Let's not forget aftermath of 2011 TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami.
posted by mazola at 9:42 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by mazola at 9:42 AM on December 19, 2011
Seeing it in Lego *almost* made me care about the royal wedding.
posted by shortyJBot at 9:49 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by shortyJBot at 9:49 AM on December 19, 2011
The Lego-people getting sprayed should have the same yellow heads as their attacker. Eh, honestly I don't find the casually pepper-spraying meme funny at all.
But thank goodness we had Xeni Jardin to explain it to us.
posted by aught at 10:11 AM on December 19, 2011
But thank goodness we had Xeni Jardin to explain it to us.
posted by aught at 10:11 AM on December 19, 2011
mediated self "honestly I don't find the casually pepper-spraying meme funny at all."
That's interesting. I had the exact opposite reaction. I'd watched the videos as they were rolled out on BoingBoing and been HORRIFIED to see how the spraying took place. It was the casual spraying that really made it so chilling.
I think the meme did some positive things - on top of the widely aired actual videos themselves...
The meme helped bring the incident to a much wider audience. I know people who never saw the videos but saw the meme and had then been exposed to the back story. This increased exposure helped raise concerns and more open debate over the overuse of pepper spray.
I also think that the meme helped show the ridiculousness of the incident. Hopefully every officer with a can of pepper spray would also have seen the meme and seen the public ridicule that it inspired.
Sometimes, laughing at horrible situations - or the horrible behaviours - can actually have a positive effect.
posted by greenhornet at 10:46 AM on December 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
That's interesting. I had the exact opposite reaction. I'd watched the videos as they were rolled out on BoingBoing and been HORRIFIED to see how the spraying took place. It was the casual spraying that really made it so chilling.
I think the meme did some positive things - on top of the widely aired actual videos themselves...
The meme helped bring the incident to a much wider audience. I know people who never saw the videos but saw the meme and had then been exposed to the back story. This increased exposure helped raise concerns and more open debate over the overuse of pepper spray.
I also think that the meme helped show the ridiculousness of the incident. Hopefully every officer with a can of pepper spray would also have seen the meme and seen the public ridicule that it inspired.
Sometimes, laughing at horrible situations - or the horrible behaviours - can actually have a positive effect.
posted by greenhornet at 10:46 AM on December 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
You know the only thing that can salvage two overplayed memes?
OWS is an overplayed meme?
posted by Bonzai at 11:20 AM on December 19, 2011
OWS is an overplayed meme?
posted by Bonzai at 11:20 AM on December 19, 2011
OWS is an overplayed meme?
A lot of commentary I hear lately talks about the need for OWS to make the transition from a good idea (which I take to me akin to a meme) to an actual movement with specific goals and recognizable leaders. (Which has seemed to involve a certain amount of comparing and contrasting with Arab protests from the last year.)
posted by aught at 11:38 AM on December 19, 2011
A lot of commentary I hear lately talks about the need for OWS to make the transition from a good idea (which I take to me akin to a meme) to an actual movement with specific goals and recognizable leaders. (Which has seemed to involve a certain amount of comparing and contrasting with Arab protests from the last year.)
posted by aught at 11:38 AM on December 19, 2011
greenhornet: Sometimes, laughing at horrible situations - or the horrible behaviours - can actually have a positive effect.
A couple of years ago at SXSW I saw a person wearing a shirt that said "Don't Taze Me Bro," and the "z" in taze was styled like a bolt of lightning. At first I was like, "Huh, that's funny." But then the whole idea of the shirt began to bother me. I think the video(s) of Andrew Meyer getting tasered are disturbing, but the whole incident has been reduced to a punchline, a catch-phrase. The "don't taze me bro" meme went viral and got a ton of exposure, but did it contribute to a dialogue about acceptable police practices on college campuses in any meaningful way? I don't think so.
As far as the "year in Lego" pictures, I'm genuinely curious as to why the creator decided to use monster/alien heads for the student protesters. Every figure in all the other pictures has regular Lego-person heads. Was it a deliberate attempt at a political statement, i.e. the police officer doesn't view the students as human? Or was it merely an attempt to make the picture more visually interesting? (yeah, I know, at this point it really sounds like I've identified the plate of beans I want to die on...well, incidents of police brutality and how they are depicted in the media and culture at large are a significant issue for me)
posted by mediated self at 11:47 AM on December 19, 2011
A couple of years ago at SXSW I saw a person wearing a shirt that said "Don't Taze Me Bro," and the "z" in taze was styled like a bolt of lightning. At first I was like, "Huh, that's funny." But then the whole idea of the shirt began to bother me. I think the video(s) of Andrew Meyer getting tasered are disturbing, but the whole incident has been reduced to a punchline, a catch-phrase. The "don't taze me bro" meme went viral and got a ton of exposure, but did it contribute to a dialogue about acceptable police practices on college campuses in any meaningful way? I don't think so.
As far as the "year in Lego" pictures, I'm genuinely curious as to why the creator decided to use monster/alien heads for the student protesters. Every figure in all the other pictures has regular Lego-person heads. Was it a deliberate attempt at a political statement, i.e. the police officer doesn't view the students as human? Or was it merely an attempt to make the picture more visually interesting? (yeah, I know, at this point it really sounds like I've identified the plate of beans I want to die on...well, incidents of police brutality and how they are depicted in the media and culture at large are a significant issue for me)
posted by mediated self at 11:47 AM on December 19, 2011
OWS is an overplayed meme?
No, no, no - the photoshopping of the image of the pepper-spraying cop is the overplayed meme.
As for "dehumanizing," call me callous or whatever but once you're already so far into the digital-speed universe of iconic images that you're being rendered in Lego, it seems to be well into the realm of the beanplate to argue that the drone-like conformist Lego people are more human than a rogues' gallery of bad-ass vengeful monsters. Indeed if I wanted to put this here platter of legumes all the way under the blue microscope I'd argue that it's more empowering to be a distinctive bad-ass vengeful monster than some conformist drone.
posted by gompa at 1:02 PM on December 19, 2011
No, no, no - the photoshopping of the image of the pepper-spraying cop is the overplayed meme.
As for "dehumanizing," call me callous or whatever but once you're already so far into the digital-speed universe of iconic images that you're being rendered in Lego, it seems to be well into the realm of the beanplate to argue that the drone-like conformist Lego people are more human than a rogues' gallery of bad-ass vengeful monsters. Indeed if I wanted to put this here platter of legumes all the way under the blue microscope I'd argue that it's more empowering to be a distinctive bad-ass vengeful monster than some conformist drone.
posted by gompa at 1:02 PM on December 19, 2011
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posted by obscurator at 8:57 AM on December 19, 2011