The idea of Bricolage

squashed · The idea of Bricolage

Entries exploring the basic idea of Bricolage Fantasy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse

Exquisite Corpse

The technique was invented by Surrealists in 1925, and is based on[citation needed] an old parlour game called Consequences in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution.

Later (perhaps[citation needed] inspired by children's books in which the pages were cut into thirds, the top third pages showing the head of a person or animal, the middle third the torso, and the bottom third the legs, with children having the ability to "mix and match" by turning pages) the game was adapted to drawing and collage. It has also been played by mailing a drawing or collage — in progressive stages of completion — to the players, and this variation is known as "exquisite corpse by airmail", or "mail art," whether the game travels by airmail or not.

The name is derived from a phrase that resulted when Surrealists first played the game, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau." ("The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.")

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The visual aspect. Concrete language structures either do not follow the traditional verse and line order or they follow it in such a limited way that one is not reminded of traditional forms (this refers only, to poetry). Longer texts preferably retain the traditional readable forms of presentation. Looking at them one can talk about the accumulation, distribution, analysis, synthesis and arrangement of linguistic signs, of letters and of words. The conventional distribution of these signs is taken into account as one possibility among others, but it is not accepted or used without being challenged. With most structures the distribution of signs follows an inherent law, and certain systems can evolve therefrom. This is a matter of bare linguistic structure, and the visible form of concrete poetry is identical to it structure, as is the case with architecture.

http://www.ubu.com/papers/gomringer02.html

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Academic concern for bricolage and bricoleurs is due to Lévi-Strauss (1966), who used them to characterise the process of myth-making in pre-industrial societies. His translator comments that the terms do not have a precise English equivalent - a bricoleur "is a man who undertakes odd jobs and is a Jack of all trades" (p. 17 ftn.) but the term carries connotations for Lévi-Strauss of naïve art that the English lacks. This may have been appropriate in the context of the bizarre elaborations in the myths he was studying, but for my purposes odd-job-man is perfectly sufficient - bricoleur is there merely for the cachet of once-trendy Parisian thought.1 The basic point for now is the idea of the handyman, making do with what is to hand rather than waiting upon the final answers or custom-built tools and materials. Such making do may well go with a tendency to ignore conventional wisdom and find solutions that reject it. Another important element that I shall invoke is the ability to invent one's own tools rather than rely only on the standard issue.

http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/epb/bricolage.html