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Magic Angle Sculptures with LEGO

Using LEGO as a medium of art is not a new phenomenon, and we have talked about a number of talented LEGO artists in the past (see links at the end of this post). However, while most artists use LEGO’s shapes, colors, or versatility as a building and sculpting material, artist John V. Muntean takes LEGO art to a whole new level by using LEGO to make shadow-art. 🙂

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In the video-player below you can watch as some very strange looking LEGO sculptures magically project beautiful images on a screen by the addition of light and movement. In the first video you can see a dragon transforming into a butterfly, then a jet. In the second video, a knight becomes a mermaid and a pirate ship. In the third video you can watch people’s reaction to one of the sculptures in Singapore where it was displayed.

Amazing, isn’t it? John is actually not new to this type of artwork. He has been studying the shapes of objects and the shadows they cast, and uses different materials for what he calls Magic Angle Sculptures. He shares on his website: “As a scientist and artist, I am interested in the how perception influences our theory of the universe. A Magic Angle Sculpture appears to be nothing more than an abstract wooden carving, skewered with a rod and mounted on a base. However, when lit from above and rotated at the magic angle (54.74º) it will cast three alternating shadows. Every 120º of rotation, the amorphous shadows evolve into independent forms. Our scientific interpretation of nature often depends upon our point of view. Perspective matters.”

LEGO Artist John Muntean 1

John V. Muntean has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, a B.S. from Trinity College, Hartford CT, and is a high school dropout. His 1990 thesis, Quantitative Aspects of Solid-State Carbon-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, led to Magic Angle Sculptures. He has been a research scientist for the Department of Energy and private industry and Professor of Organic Chemistry. He is currently a spectroscopist at Argonne National Laboratory. He lives near Chicago.

John was inspired to create the Magic Angle Sculptures through his work with magic angle sample spinning, a scientific technique that mechanically simulates a molecule tumbling through space. The effect is to rapidly interchange the three axes of the Cartesian coordinates (x, y, and z). A complex observable phenomenon in three-dimensional space (such as the nuclear magnetic moments of a static molecule) can be represented by 3 x 3 tensors or sets of nine numbers; spinning at the magic angle simplifies that quantity to single isotropic values.

While the shadows are beautiful to look at, and you can just consider these as pieces of magical LEGO art, there is a lot of science and philosophy that’s behind these sculptures. If you are willing to go deeper, and experiment with some going-down-the-rabbit-hole type thinking, on his website the artist encourages the viewer of the sculptures to imagine a couple of scenarios and series of questions:

1. You are a two-dimensional being living in the plane below a sculpture. Would you be able to visualize the three-dimensional object by watching only the shadows change with time? From your current vantage, (in three dimensions) note that there is no slice through the object that contains the whole image that is projected below. So the shadow at any moment is both less and more complete than the whole object. The shadow’s form does not exist in the object but is rather implied from the complete integration through three-dimensions. No understanding of the object or shadow could be complete if you are limited to two-dimensions.

2. You are a three-dimensional being, locked into four-dimensional space-time. Are you observing a universe that is casting shadows from a higher dimension? If so, are you a projection that does not exist in any one “slice” through space-time? How does this affect your perception of locality? Are you like the prisoner in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, watching shadows and convinced you are observing the universe as it is? Is it possible to break free and see the truth as the prisoner does? Would you recognize the true forms or would they appear as foreign as a Magic Angle Sculpture?

LEGO Artist John Muntean 2

This type of out-of-the-box thinking and experimenting is what pushes our understanding of the universe and ourselves in it into greater heights and deeper levels. And it is what transforms a child’s toy like LEGO into a scientific instrument. While there people who are more right-brain artists, and those who are left-brain scientists, I found that the most amazing results always come from the combination of both. And that’s why I like John’s Magic Angle Sculpture.

What do you think? How do you like these LEGO Magic Angle Sculptures? Is there any other LEGO art that you really like because it goes deeper than just being a good-looking LEGO creation? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

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Last year DK Publishing released two interesting books; LEGO Ninjago: Build Your Own Adventure, and LEGO Friends: Build Your Own Adventure. And recently they added two more books to the line; LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure, and LEGO City: Build Your Own Adventure. The books are similar to the discontinued LEGO BrickMaster line, with included LEGO building elements and minifigs. The new books however are designed a bit differently than the LEGO BrickMaster books; instead of the book itself having a thick storage compartment for LEGO elements, now we get a slip-case that contains a normal hardbound book and a separate box with LEGO parts. I quite like this series (see my previous review here), so let’s take a closer look at the two new books. 🙂

LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure Review

LEGO STAR WARS: BUILD YOUR OWN ADVENTUREA book with bricks that inspires kids to build, play, and learn, LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure combines more than 50 inspirational ideas for building with enthralling story starters from the world of LEGO Star Wars. Organized into five chapters based on different planets in the Star Wars universe, readers will use their builds to break prisoners out on Cloud City and spy on the Imperial Army on Endor. Model ideas will inspire readers of various ages and abilities, with an appropriate mix of easy, medium, and harder builds. LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure will get kids inspired to build and play out adventures of their own, and it comes with bricks and instructions to build an exclusive LEGO Star Wars model to add to their collection. The boxed set includes: an 80-page book filled with stories, building instructions, tips, and ideas. LEGO bricks to build an exclusive LEGO Star Wars Y-wing Starfighter model, and a LEGO Star Wars Rebel Pilot minifigure. All the inspiration you need to build your own LEGO Star Wars adventure. Regular price: $24.99, sale price (at the time of publishing this post): $10.99 – BUY ON AMAZON

The main model that comes with the book is the LEGO Star Wars Y-wing, which looks sweet, and fits really well with the LEGO Star Wars MicroFighters series. As mentioned in the description, the minifigure included is a Rebel Pilot. The book itself is divided into five chapters (Home One, Hoth, Tatooine, Cloud City and Endor) and each chapter features a number of other models that you can use for inspiration. Please note that these are not alternate models that you can build with the same included pieces, but simply suggestions to build from your own LEGO collection. However the models are small enough that most LEGO fans with an average collection should be able to replicate them without much difficulty. The models can also be used as seed-ideas for larger creations. Below are a few sample pages from the book.

LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure Star Wars 1 LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure Star Wars 2 LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure Star Wars 3

LEGO CITY: BUILD YOUR OWN ADVENTUREA book with bricks that inspires kids to build, play, and learn, LEGO City: Build Your Own Adventure combines more than 50 inspirational ideas for building with enthralling story starters from the world of LEGO City. Organized into five chapters structured around different environments from the city world, readers will use their builds to aid a sunken boat in the city’s marina and help control a forest fire in a nearby park. Model ideas will inspire readers of various ages and abilities, with an appropriate mix of easy, medium, and harder models. LEGO City: Build Your Own Adventure will get kids inspired to build and play out adventures of their own, and comes with bricks and instructions to build an exclusive LEGO City model to add to their collection. The boxed set includes: an 80-page book filled with stories, building instructions, tips, and ideas. LEGO bricks to build an exclusive LEGO City Fire Truck model, and a LEGO City Firefighter minifigure. All the inspiration you need to build your own LEGO City adventure. Regular price: $24.99, sale price (at the time of publishing this post): $10.99 – BUY ON AMAZON

LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure City 1

From the four books in the Build Your Own Adventure series, this is probably the least exciting at first glance. The main model is a fire truck, and the included minifigure is a firefighter – neither of them are particularly special. The five chapters of the book cover various firefighting scenarios (park fire, water rescue, etc.) and also include other LEGO City settings and vehicles that can be incorporated into your own LEGO City. While these models may not be as exciting as LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Ninjago, they are good examples of generic useful items that can fit in pretty much any theme. Again, these models can’t be built from the included bricks, but they are simply there to give you inspiration and ideas. Below are a few sample pages.

LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure City 2 LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure City 3 LEGO Book Build Your Own Adventure City 4

Like I said in my previous review, I have been a fan of the LEGO BrickMaster books because they offer hours of play for kids; there is a story to read, characters to play with, and included LEGO elements for building. I do like that in this new format the book and the box are separate but still stay together within the slip-case; a handy way to keep everything together for transportation and storage. I’m happy to see that now there are four books in the collection, and I expect that there is going to be even more – perhaps LEGO Nexo Knights and LEGO Elves? While the books are recommended for children 8+, I admit I enjoy them as an adult as well.

What do you think? Do you like the LEGO BrickMaster books? And what do you think of this new line of building your own adventure? Do you feel they are better or worse than the BrickMaster books? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the LEGO Books section for more book reviews, or select from the following related posts:

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