The Art of LEGO

Thank you for returning!

Can LEGOs be considered art? Of course. Can LEGOs create art? Absolutely. “How would LEGOs create art?” you might ask. Using the example of the LEGO Mindstorms product, LEGOs can be become robots that can do many creative things... like, draw on an Etch-A-Sketch. The Etch-A-Sketch was one of the most frustrating toys of my childhood. I still liked it because I understood its potential, but I lacked the patience to learn how to utilize the Etch-A-Sketch to draw anything that was visually appealing. 

Using my programming know-how, a LEGO NXT 2.0 brain brick (since replaced by LEGO with the EV3), and a digital camera, I developed a robot that could take any photograph and etch it onto an Etch-A-Sketch. A homemade LEGO Bluetooth Etch-A-Sketch Photo Printer! 

Why did I decide to build such a creation? Because I had to prove to myself that I could overcome the challenge of the Etch-A-Sketch!  I liked to take pictures of the flowers in the back yard, so I thought I would start there. I do not have a picture of the original flower garden, so I created a LEGO version to give you the general idea of what it looked like. 

LEGO interpretation of my backyard flower garden of years long past

Below is a picture of one single flower from that flower garden. This is the actual picture that was used for the Etch-A-Sketch printing. I had to power up the old IBM ThinkPad (pre-Lenovo years) that was running Windows XP to find it, so I am a little psyched that the computer actually started and I found it.

One nice little yellow flower from the flower garden

This is the final rendering of the flower on the Etch-A-Sketch. Pretty snazzy.

The final product, the Etch-A-Sketched flower

So there you have it. LEGOs creating art by taking a photograph and gracefully etching it into an ephemeral rendering. Like the fleeting yellow flowers of spring, here today and gone tomorrow, the final product of an Etch-A-Sketch is also fragile and subject to a short life-span, especially in shaky situations.  Art has created art.

Before we close out, let’s get to know Taco Frisbee a little better. Yes, Taco Frisbee is a Roomba iRobot vacuum cleaner. You may have noticed in some pictures that he has a few other parts that may or may not provide any functionality. The XBOX 360 Kinect sensor is TF’s favorite accessory and allows for additional multi-tasking. The giant LEGO head part is just for looks. Prior to having it folks would give us strange looks as we walked about town or took strolls on the boardwalk. If you look at the pictures below, TF is the one wearing the stovepipe hat. 

Me and Taco Frisbee on a winter stroll through the marsh

If you would like additional information from me and TF, enter your info here and we will be in touch soon!