Bricolage
The term bricolage comes from French bricolage bricolage and means “work that is put together from whatever materials come to hand” (Sutherland 108). This means that bricoleurs do not have the necessity to look for specific material or a specific instrument in order to design a piece of art; they rather take what they have around them. Thus, the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss Lévi- Strauss compared a bricoleur’s work with the work of an engineer, which is illustrated by the comparison of the two videos we have shown in the presentation 1: An engineer does purposeful work with instruments especially designed for this specific problem, while the bricoleur uses material which is usually designed for another purpose. In the video about bricolage, for example, the bricoleur uses a paperclip as a screwdriver while the engineer uses a special plastic pipe shear in order to cut plastic pipes – its its original purpose. The bricolage working method can, for example, be observed in art: In 1921, the designer Simon Rodia built eighteen towers made of rubbish in Los Angeles, called the eighteen Watt Towers (Sutherland 108). Here, we can see that the material rubbish was not especially designed as material for a tower; it was supposed to be used for something different or, in this case, just to be burnt. In art, “this approach became popular in the early twentieth century when resources were scarce, and aspects of surrealism, dada and cubism have a bricolage character” (“Art Term Bricolage”). Bricolage”). Another example can be the letters of LISBOA 2 made out of dustbins which we have found on our trip to Portugal in November. Dustbins are designed for the dispose of rubbish, not for decoration. Furthermore, we can find bricolage in literature, discussed by Claude Lévi-Strauss again. In his work “La “ La Pensée Sauvage” Sauvage” (1962 (1962), ), in English ‘The Salvage Thought’, he asserts that the structure of myths is assembled according to the principle of bricolage (Sutherland ( Sutherland 108). This is because myths m yths contain elements of old ol d myths m yths or stories being changed or integrated. Here, we can observe the bricolage working method again: The old myths, now integrated into the new myth, were designed for another myth, another story; thus, another purpose. The authors took what they could 1 2
Video links: see Works Cited. Photo: see Attachments.
find in order to create a new story. Accordingly, bricolage further functions as intertextuality because of the integration of old texts into new contexts. These old texts in the new myths fulfil different functions than they actually had; sometimes the old texts are even parodied in their new contexts (Nünning 89). One of the most relevant works from Bricolage it is a radio programme broadcast in 1931 along Unite States, called `War of the Worlds’ (Sutherland 111). It consist that every American citizen was misled to think that Earth was being invaded by aliens from Martian. This broadcast belongs to our genre because it takes as starting point the science fiction novel published by H.G. Wells in 1897, in fact, it is very similar in contents but adapted to its time. Following the Bricolage statements a new adaptation was carried out by Howard Koach because of 75 th century. We find that this production demonstrates the script written as a part of its `Midnight Radio’, the real name of the radio at that time. The company originates one of the first live program radio on stage, in contrast, not for broadcast but for the theater audience to who this results quite original. In addition, Bricolage has changed the location of the first Martian attack from New Jersey to near Pittsburgh and, added a couple of entertaining commercials ( Eberson). We are witnesses about how Koch and Wells exploit the medium of radio in a new way to their ends. The impulsion of the story keep us fascinated from beginning to the final of the invasion, due to it artistically makes a performance out of the way radio plays used to be performance, before technology had discovered the capacity to record this kind of programme making use of creation of sound effects. We can see the positively funny that it is this, because of Bricoleurs artist who use such materials as: pebbles, shoes, fabric, wind machines and thunder sheets, create special effects with which They make us feel, when we close our eyes, that it really sounds like the real object. The cast of actors is really wonderful: Bricoleurs such as Tami Dixon and Mr. Carpenter manage to express their voice in different tones and modes, giving the feeling that they are an extensive group of people who are on the other side of the microphone (Eberson).
The first film of this work was produced by George Pal in 1953. This Bricolage adaptation uses the same plot than the original except to Red Planet`s discovery which give more veracity to the panic stricken suffering among population. This ‘War of the Worlds’ was hardly criticised because it is too far from the original in form, as, it puts on itself fiction elements with nonsense (Sutherland 111).
Attachments
Source: private photo (by Julia Norwig)
Works Cited “Art Term Bricolage.” TATE , www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/b/bricolage. Accessed 22 November 2017.
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Eberson, Sharon. “Stage Preview: Bricolage re-creates Welles' infamous broadcast in 'Midnight Radio: The War of the Worlds‘: Bricolage re-creates Welles‘ infamous broadcast in 'Midnight Radio: The War of the Worlds‘”. PittsburghPost-Gazette, October
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Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Claude Levi Strauss’ Concept of Bricolage”. Literary Theory Criticism
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Mileaf, Janine. “Janine Mileaf on Levi-Strauss, "Science of the Concrete“”. Upenn.edu, n.d., www.sas.upenn.edu/~jenglish/Courses/mileaf.html. Accessed 22 November 2017.
Nünning, Ansgar. Metzler Lexikon Literatur- und Kulturtheorie: Ansätze – Personen sdsdsdsGrundbegriffe. 5th ed., J.B. Metzler, 2013
Sutherland, John. How Literature Works: 50 Key Concepts. Oxford University Press,
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