I pulled out my photos from a 2011 day trip to Chamonix that Y and I made. When we visited Switzerland that year–our last real vacation–I really wanted to see Mont Blanc, because of its importance in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). It’s where Victor encounters his creation, learns his creation’s story, and agrees to create a mate for his creation. Also, it figuratively looms large in Romanticism and works of that era. Here is one of my favorite photos–the mountaineer Jacques Balmat, who with Michel-Gabriel Paccard first summited Mont Blanc on 8 August 1786, points the way to the highest peak in Western Europe to Horace Bénédict de Saussure, who had offered a reward for the first to the summit and climbed it himself with Balmat and 15 others on 3 August 1787.
This is one of the more interesting sidewalk sheds–scaffolding that covers sidewalks and protects pedestrians below where building work is being done above–that I’ve seen in NYC. It’s near Bryant Park in Manhattan. In addition to be cleaner looking scaffolding, it features semicircular lighting that probably looks nice after dark. Most scaffolding in the city looks like what you can see in the background on the left–utilitarian and spartan. According to Gothamist, there’s about 400 miles of scaffolding spread throughout the five boroughs. Between the buildings and the scaffolding, it’s easy to imagine where Isaac Asimov got the idea for the setting in The Caves of Steel (1953).
I have appreciated Piet Mondrian’s neoplasticism artwork for many years. As I wrote about here, I was glad to see his work shown in Lt. Cmd. Data’s quarters on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Then, after seeing some of his works in person at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, I hatched a plan to copy his the painting from Data’s quarters–Mondrian’s Tableau I (1921) on display at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag–using a different medium: LEGO.
Planning with GIMP
Before creating a planning image using GIMP, I had to decide what size I wanted (and could afford) my build to be. I had already decided to use LEGO 1×1 flat tiles as the “painting medium.” Using LEGO’s Pick-a-Brick service online, these bricks cost $0.05 each in a variety of colors. If I went with a 32×32 stud “canvas,” that would give a surface area of 1,024 studs and therefore a need of 1,024 flat tiles to cover all of those studs. This would cost $51.20 for enough tiles to cover a 32×32 surface. Other options that I considered was enlarging each dimension by 1.5 to 48×48 for 2,304 studs and a cost of $115.20 for enough tiles or enlarging by 2 to 64×64 for 4,096 studs and a cost of $204.80 for enough tiles. Even using bricks that I already owned to create the canvas and stand, it was hard to spend more than the $51.20 for enough tiles to cover a 32×32 canvas and essentially fill the volume of your hands cupped together.
With that decision made, I could begin working in GIMP. First, I opened an image of Mondrian’s Tableau I (1921). The original is painted on a 103cm x 100cm canvas. Since I am creating a perfect square, I needed to square this image and resize it to match my calculations. To do this, I simply selected Image > Scale Image > unlinked the horizontal and vertical resolution > entered 320 for X and Y > clicked Scale. This made the image a perfect square with a resolution of 320 by 320.
Next, I needed to make the image look more LEGO-like to calculate how many flat tiles I would need of each color. To do this, I added a new layer over the original image and then clicked Filters > Render > Pattern > Grid.
On the Grid pop-up window, I changed the Width and Height to 10–meaning that there would be a grid line every 10 pixels on the X and Y axes. Since I had already scaled the image to 320 pixels on each side, this grid would perfectly approximate the 32 x 32 grid of my LEGO canvas. Also, I set the line width and height to 1 pixel each so that it wouldn’t be too large and obscure the next step. After clicking OK, the grid appears over the image.
While remaining on the layer with the grid, I selected the paint bucket tool, selected the color of the target areas–black, blue, red, and yellow–in turn, and filled the appropriate squares to match the original painting underneath. I did this to make sure I was making the tile count as accurate as possible. If I hadn’t done this, the black lines would be less noticeable and what I might count as a colored square versus a black line might become confused. At a LEGO resolution of 32×32 studs, it was impossible for me to make it as accurate as the original, so this technique helped me approximate the original with a high degree of accuracy.
Then, I counted the squares of each color to make my LEGO order: 686 white, 177 black, 77 blue, 70 yellow, and 14 red. I ordered a extra flat tiles of each color in case my counting was incorrect.
Building the Canvas
I wanted to build a substantial canvas for the Mondrian instead of using a 32×32 base plate. Also, I wanted to build with as many white bricks and plates as I could to reduce how much I had stored in plastic bins under my desk.
To begin, I laid out a 32×32 grid of plates. I didn’t have a large number of similar types of white plates, so I had to try different configurations before settling on one. If I had to do over again, I would have tried configuring it for more staggered stepping instead of long break lines as I did.
I flipped over the plates to begin building the support frame for the canvas using bricks.
I wanted the canvas to appear stretched, so I continued the color white from the canvas’ plates to the border.
Knowing these other colors would be hidden, I used filler bricks in a mirrored pattern (I would know what it was like underneath even though no one else would).
After beginning to cover the filler bricks with white plates (stretched canvas) and sand plates (wood frame), I thought that it would be cool to build a hidden compartment to hold a written statement about the artwork. So, I pulled out some central bricks, filled the center with inverted 2×2 flat tiles.
I constructed a compartment door on hinges in the middle of the back of the canvas and filled the rest of the space with dark sand plates (paper backing protecting the canvas).
Here is the hidden compartment door open.
Flipped back over, the canvas is primed and ready for the “paint.”
Constructing Display Stands for the Canvas
I used LEGO Technic bricks to build two stands for the canvas so that it was held at a stable angle.
It’s about 70 degrees from horizontal.
I beefed up the friction connection between the stands and the canvas by using two 1×10 Technic bricks that attach to the canvas.
From the blue color, you can see that I used a number of 3 brick width pins.
These photos show the stands in more detail detached from the canvas.
Note that the angle is achieved by having the long arm simply rest against a smaller L-shaped Technic support arm. Gravity holds things in place.
I added extra Technic bricks to the stand’s bottom support legs for extra strength.
Assembling Mondrian’s Tableau I (1921)
After placing my LEGO Pick-a-Brick order for the “painting” 1×1 flat tiles, it took about a week-and-a-half to arrive.
I ordered bricks for a custom Millennium Falcon that I am currently also working on, so I needed to sort everything out.
Here I am sorting the LEGO bricks.
With the bricks sorted, I began to paint my recreation of Mondrian’s Tableau I (1921).
I began at the top horizontal line and created one line at a time–kind of like a CRT drawing a line of pixels across the screen one-at-a-time.
The problem with LEGO flat tiles is that they are difficult to align just by placing them on a stud.
To align each line of flat tiles, you can take a brick separator, place it edge-wise along the flat tiles, and pull it back-and-forth lightly–hard enough to press against the flat tiles’ edges but not so hard as to keep it from moving above the adjacent studs as in the picture above.
As you can see, the flat tiles are now aligned better. I did this trick for each line of flat tiles as I worked down the canvas.
Nearing the end of the build, I discovered that I didn’t have enough flat tiles in white and black. I recounted and recalculated. My count was correct, but LEGO short changed me about 70 elements from my order and gave me 70 extra yellow tile that I didn’t order. I called their customer service the next day and asked that they correct the order. I received the missing parts after another week-and-a-half. I continued “painting.”
After several weeks, I had completed my copy of Mondrian’s Tableau I (1921) using LEGO!
The side view reveals hints of the “paint” of the lines of 1×1 flat tiles.
The back of the canvas mounted on the display stands has its hidden compartment in the back center of the canvas.
For the hidden artist statement, I cut out a 4×4 square and wrote in pencil, “Miniature copy of Piet Mondrian’s Tableau I (1921), 103cm x 100cm at Kunstmueum Den Haag. Design and Build by Jason W. Ellis 2024. Medium: LEGO.” I pasted it on the flat tiles inside the lid of the hidden compartment.
Fall 2024 classes begin on Wednesday, August 28. Originally, I was hoping to teach City Tech’s ENG2420, Science Fiction course in person this semester, but the in-person section had too few students to run. Thankfully, after the administration switched the class to being online, asynchronous and sending a message blast to prospective students, the new online class quickly filled up. Since City Tech recently switched to a new learning management system (LMS) called Brightspace, I’m going to experiment teaching the class on it instead of using our open learning system, OpenLab. However, I will still create my video lectures as YouTube videos, so they will be public facing for anyone interested in following along or using them in their own classes. Also, this will be my first time teaching the class using my open educational resource (OER) Yet Another Science Fiction Textbook. Here’s to a positive and productive semester!
Yesterday, Y and I took the subway to Manhattan to watch the film Alien: Romulus on the IMAX screen at the AMC 14 on 34th Street.
I thought that Alien: Romulus was an interesting story that threaded the needle of connecting the origin film Alien (1979) via the first Xenomorph we saw and the android Ash (Ian Holm) to Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) via the black liquid (hints of the black oil from The X-Files) and the Engineers. The retrocomputers, ASCII text, and a computer with a 3.5″ floppy disk drive made it feel like the same world as Alien. I felt that some of the lines were corny, over-the-top, and unnecessary fan service, but overall, it was an interesting and sometimes exciting addition to the series.
Unrelated to the film per se, I have some thoughts instead about the technologies of presentation and communal engagement with the film.
First, movies shown in theaters, especially IMAX films, are shown with the volume far too loud. Y and I last went to an IMAX film over 10 years ago, but the memory of how that experience hurt both of our ears, we planned ahead and brought foam ear plugs. Even with our ear plugs, which work wonders at eliminating noise in other settings, were just barely up to the task of keeping the volume of the film presentation at tolerable levels. Let me put that another way: While wearing ear plugs, I was able to hear the film’s dialog and sound effects and music just fine and sometimes a little not fine when it got so loud as to overpower the ear plugs. That’s too damn loud. It was only after we were leaving that Y thought we should have checked the decibel levels. Hindsight is 20-20.
Second, I know to some I might sound like an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn, but for those who have known me a long time, they know that I’ve been deadly serious about this since going to see films when I was a kid. That is we owe other theater goers our respect so that everyone can enjoy the film. Carrying on, talking, or using a phone during a movie can disturb others, so we shouldn’t do those things. Unfortunately, some of the other customers, who would have paid the same $30 per ticket we paid, don’t care for social norms and simple decency. It would be one thing if these were kids who didn’t know any better, but these were adults who acted like kids. Hell is other people, I suppose.
Considering these things, I prefer to stay at home to enjoy a film without ear plugs or annoying guests. Of course, I am assuming the neighbors don’t act the fool, which I’ve tried my best to address following these tips.
