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AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
of the block is, the fact that every block has the same interface allows them
to be connected” and disconnected in profit-generating ways (ObjectSharp
Blog). 26 Moreover, derivatives’ supposed purpose, namely to distribute risk
as a means of hedging against failure, equally applies to The LEGO Movie.
This is to say that little imagination is required to see how this kind of
derivative, recombinatory logic applies to an inherently complex film like
this one, put together through the decentralized dynamics of culture that
operate along the lines of shifting connections between various storyworlds
and, significantly, I would add, between human and non-human actors.
What kind of Minifigure am I? Subjectivity, Affect, Cuteness
The Daily Mash recently published a piece entitled “LEGO ‘promoting
unrealistic body image’” in which Julian Cook, a father of three, reportedly
complained, “LEGO is promoting an aesthetic standard that is simply not
achievable for human beings.” He went on to explain that his “12-year-old
daughter spends all her time trying to make her body shorter and stockier,
and her nose disappear completely.” 27 While this is obviously a fictional
spoof on very legitimate concerns surrounding Barbie, appropriate body
shape, and the ostensibly negative influence that such dolls have on girls’
self-images, the piece is not without significance in the present context.
Indeed, if Henry Jenkins is correct in arguing that transmedia texts do
“not simply disperse information” but rather provide sets of “roles and
goals which readers [and viewers] can assume as they enact aspects of
the story through their everyday life,” 28 and if, according to Randy Martin,
26 “The Legofication of Business”, Object Sharp Blog, posted August 13, 2012, accessed February
15, 2019, http://blogs.objectsharp.com/post/2012/08/13/The-Legofication-Of-Business.aspx.
Here one might argue that the term “legofication” as it appears in this title to the blog entry I
am quoting fails to take into account how LEGO, as a cultural form, is itself an epiphenomenon
of an economic base. Were this the case, the suggestion would be that legofication is simply a
reverse logic whereby commoditized culture informs economic structures and practices. That
said, however, I use the term “legofication” as more than simply a metaphor based on similarities
between capital and LEGO, and intend it to refer to the logic of the neoliberal practices that I
have been at pains to bring to light in this essay. My goal is to look at the cultural and economic
significance of LEGO in order to illustrate how a brand can become an underlying phenomenon,
or at least partially inform the underlying systems of management and production which in turn
inform and rely on culture, while also taking their cue from cultural production.
27 “Lego ‘Promoting Unrealistic Body Image’,” The Daily Mash, posted June 18, 2015,
accessed March 2, 2016 and February 15, 2019, www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/
lego-promoting-unrealistic-body-image-2015061899397.
28 Jenkins, “Transmedia Storytelling 101.”
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
of the block is, the fact that every block has the same interface allows them
to be connected” and disconnected in profit-generating ways (ObjectSharp
Blog). 26 Moreover, derivatives’ supposed purpose, namely to distribute risk
as a means of hedging against failure, equally applies to The LEGO Movie.
This is to say that little imagination is required to see how this kind of
derivative, recombinatory logic applies to an inherently complex film like
this one, put together through the decentralized dynamics of culture that
operate along the lines of shifting connections between various storyworlds
and, significantly, I would add, between human and non-human actors.
What kind of Minifigure am I? Subjectivity, Affect, Cuteness
The Daily Mash recently published a piece entitled “LEGO ‘promoting
unrealistic body image’” in which Julian Cook, a father of three, reportedly
complained, “LEGO is promoting an aesthetic standard that is simply not
achievable for human beings.” He went on to explain that his “12-year-old
daughter spends all her time trying to make her body shorter and stockier,
and her nose disappear completely.” 27 While this is obviously a fictional
spoof on very legitimate concerns surrounding Barbie, appropriate body
shape, and the ostensibly negative influence that such dolls have on girls’
self-images, the piece is not without significance in the present context.
Indeed, if Henry Jenkins is correct in arguing that transmedia texts do
“not simply disperse information” but rather provide sets of “roles and
goals which readers [and viewers] can assume as they enact aspects of
the story through their everyday life,” 28 and if, according to Randy Martin,
26 “The Legofication of Business”, Object Sharp Blog, posted August 13, 2012, accessed February
15, 2019, http://blogs.objectsharp.com/post/2012/08/13/The-Legofication-Of-Business.aspx.
Here one might argue that the term “legofication” as it appears in this title to the blog entry I
am quoting fails to take into account how LEGO, as a cultural form, is itself an epiphenomenon
of an economic base. Were this the case, the suggestion would be that legofication is simply a
reverse logic whereby commoditized culture informs economic structures and practices. That
said, however, I use the term “legofication” as more than simply a metaphor based on similarities
between capital and LEGO, and intend it to refer to the logic of the neoliberal practices that I
have been at pains to bring to light in this essay. My goal is to look at the cultural and economic
significance of LEGO in order to illustrate how a brand can become an underlying phenomenon,
or at least partially inform the underlying systems of management and production which in turn
inform and rely on culture, while also taking their cue from cultural production.
27 “Lego ‘Promoting Unrealistic Body Image’,” The Daily Mash, posted June 18, 2015,
accessed March 2, 2016 and February 15, 2019, www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/
lego-promoting-unrealistic-body-image-2015061899397.
28 Jenkins, “Transmedia Storytelling 101.”