I said I'd add an interpretation of my own, after letting the post sit for a bit - here it is. (Many interpretations may be possible.)
We witness our protagonist go through a sequence of stages in relation to his society’s medium of choice:
1) He learns the medium as intended. (He begins to convey normal things using LEGOS)
2) At a certain point he sees beyond the medium, and feels the medium constrain him. He attempts to resolve this by attaining mastery with the medium. (He makes excellent LEGO statues of water.)
3) When even this fails, he takes aim at the medium itself, but has not yet transcended it; he thus uses the medium to criticize the medium. (This is the abstract LEGO art, using the medium for a non-intended purpose.)
4) He expands or overturns the medium, possibly breaking it in the process. In doing so, he creates a new medium. (The new form of melting LEGOs, which captures fluid rather than static things.)
I find this framework is useful for understanding artists. But artist themselves might be well-understood as a special case of a broader category: communicators.
I think we all have things we'd like to convey to society, which society does not yet have the frameworks or language to receive.
I said I'd add an interpretation of my own, after letting the post sit for a bit - here it is. (Many interpretations may be possible.)
We witness our protagonist go through a sequence of stages in relation to his society’s medium of choice:
1) He learns the medium as intended. (He begins to convey normal things using LEGOS)
2) At a certain point he sees beyond the medium, and feels the medium constrain him. He attempts to resolve this by attaining mastery with the medium. (He makes excellent LEGO statues of water.)
3) When even this fails, he takes aim at the medium itself, but has not yet transcended it; he thus uses the medium to criticize the medium. (This is the abstract LEGO art, using the medium for a non-intended purpose.)
4) He expands or overturns the medium, possibly breaking it in the process. In doing so, he creates a new medium. (The new form of melting LEGOs, which captures fluid rather than static things.)
I find this framework is useful for understanding artists. But artist themselves might be well-understood as a special case of a broader category: communicators.
I think we all have things we'd like to convey to society, which society does not yet have the frameworks or language to receive.