Assemblage can be viewed as the organization and arrangement of elements, taking small parts that seem unrelated and combining them into a larger whole. When I read this keyword, I think of assembly lines of workers or technology taking different materials and piecing them together to make products. I am also reminded of commercials for toys from when I was kid stating, “assembly required.” Typically, this warning meant that the toy came with many different pieces that required the buyer to put them all in their proper place. The toy that really comes to mind are Lego sets, which usually contain many elements. Each set includes a box, a magazine of instructions, labeled bags, and a variety of pieces within each of those bags. Through the lens of assemblage, Lego has elements like the different components found in a set, they are organized by an instruction manual, and it is all arranged in a specific way to make one whole toy.
2 thoughts on “Assemblage-Benjamin Cudmore”
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I really like the examples you use as far as workers and Legos. Many games that children play include assembling like, as you said, Legos, blocks, plus plus blocks, etc. We were faced with assemblage at a young age. Although, we still do it now in our day to day life. When we make our instagram or twitter posts, we need different elements in order to assemble what we’re gonna put on our social media. This first starts with a platform, then a thought, and interactions. Crafting things to put onto social media is our new “toy” in a sense.
I once attended a small conference where we were asked to build an assemblage of legos as part of a conference talk, to help demonstrate how an assemblage comes together.