Of bits and pieces

Legoland- a theme park designed around a toy.
Forest Lawn- a cemetery with art installations.
Different, but in this case similar.

One of the most creative aspects of LegoLand is the miniature cityscapes. Model builders are an amazing bunch of people, with incredible attention to detail and the ability to find creative solutions with just about any material. In this case Legos. YouTube is full of Lego movies, and French director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Human Nature) obviously worked some magic on the White Stripes video.

Back to the park: There is a miniature Lego world created in the middle of the park. San Francisco, NYC, LA, New Orleans, Las Vegas and many other cities are represented in scale models. It is an angular universe with these tiny bits, but many of the installations transcend the limitations with color, scale and humor. Here are shots through the New York City skyline, and a mohawk-wearing guy getting bitten by a dog:
But is it art? Well, in another part of the park other creators have taken the time to put small rectangular pieces together to make reproductions of art pieces.

Over to Forest Lawn cemetery in Burbank: there is a very large mosaic installation depicting various parts of the War for Independence. The overall effect is nice, but what is really impressive is the technique used in the details. Again, small rectangular pieces of color are used to great effect:

So the question is: would we, as a creative species, be as good at creating 3D art out of millions of various colored polygons if there were no Legos or mosaics in our field of influence? One vote for no here.