LEGOfied

<i>LEGOfied: Building Blocks as Media</i>provides a multi-faceted exploration of LEGO fandom addressing a blindspot in current accounts of LEGO and an emerging area of interest to media scholars: namely the role of hobbyist enthusiasts and content producers in LEGO's emergence as a ubiquitous transmedia franchise. This book examines a range of LEGO hobbyism and their attendant forms of mediated self-expression and identity (their technicities): artists aspiring Master Builders collectors and entrepreneurs who refashion LEGO bricks into new commodities (sets tchotchkes and minifigures). The practices and perspectives that constitute this diverse scene lie at the intersection of multiple transformations in contemporary culture including the shifting relationships between culture industries and the audiences that form their most ardent consumer base but also the emerging forms of entrepreneurialism professionalization and globalization that characterize the burgeoning DIY movement. <br/><br/>What makes this a compelling project for media scholars is its mutli-dimensional articulation of how LEGO functions not just as a toy cultural icon or as transmedia franchise but as a media platform<i>.</i> <i>LEGOfied</i>is centered around their shared experiences qualitative observations and semi-structured interviews at a number of LEGO hobbyist conventions. Working outwards from these conventions each chapter engages additional modes of inquiry-media archaeology aesthetics posthumanist philosophy feminist media studies and science and technology studies-to explore the origins permutations and implications of different aspects of the contemporary LEGO fandom scene.