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Look up bricolage in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

For the Amon Tobin album with this name, see Bricolage (album). For the content management system, see Bricolage (software).

Bricolage, pronounced /ˌbriːkoʊˈlɑːʒ/, /ˌbrɪkoʊˈlɑːʒ/ is a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts and literature, to refer to:

• the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things which happen to be available;
• a work created by such a process.

It is borrowed from the French word bricolage, from the verb bricoler – the core meaning in French being, "fiddle, tinker" and, by extension, "make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are to hand (regardless of their original purpose)."

A person who engages in bricolage is a bricoleur.

Contents 1 Art 1.1 Music 1.2 Visual Art 2 Academics 2.1 Cultural studies 2.2 Philosophy 2.3 Biology 2.4 Education 3 Popular Culture 3.1 Fashion 3.2 Television 4 Information technology 4.1 Information systems 4.2 Internet 5 Business 5.1 Organization and Management 6 Everyday Life 7 References 8 Links

[edit] Art

[edit] Music

Instrumental Bricolage in music would include the use of found objects as instruments:

• Irish Spoons
• Australian slap bass made from a tea chest
• comb and wax paper for humming through
• gumleaf humming
• Largophone (made from a stick and bottle tops)
• Trinidadian Steel drums (made from industrial storage drums)
• African drums and thumb pianos made from recycled pots and pans.
• American super instruments made from recorders and bicycle bells or metal rods and keys
• Stomp (dance troupe) is an example of the use of bricolage in music and dance. They utilize everyday objects, such as trash cans and broom sticks, to produce music.

Stylistic Bricolage is the inclusion of common musical devices with new uses. Shuker [1998 Popular Music: Key Concepts ] writes "Punk best emphasized such stylistic bricolage".

Musical Bricolage flourishes in music of sub-cultures where:

• experimentation is part of daily life (pioneers, immigrants, artistic communities),
• access to resources is limited (such as in remote, discriminated or financially disconnected sub-cultures) which limits commercial influence (eg. acoustic performers, gypsies, ghetto music, hippie, folk or traditional musicians) and
• there is a political or social drive to seek individuality (eg. Rap music, peace-drives, drummers circles)

Unlike other bricolage fields

• intimate knowledge of resources is not necessary (many Punk musicians are not classically trained. Classical training discourages creativity in preference for accuracy).
• careful observation and listening is not necessary, it is common in spontaneous music to welcome 'errors' and disharmony.

Like other bricolage fields, Bricolage music still values

• trusting one's ideas
• self-correcting structures (targeted audiences, even if limited)

[edit] Visual Art

In art, bricolage is a technique where works are constructed from various materials available or on hand, and is seen as a characteristic of postmodern works.

These materials may be mass-produced or "junk". See also: Merz, polystylism, collage.

Bricolage can also be applied to theatrical form of improvisation. More commonly known as Improv. The idea of using one's environment and materials which are at hand is the main goal in Improv. The environment is the stage and the materials are often pantomimed. The use of the stage and the imaginary materials are all made up on the spot so the materials which are at hand ar actually things that the players know from past experiences. (i.e. an improvisation of ordering fast food: One player would start with the common phrase "How May I help You").

Bricolage is also applied in interior design, through blending styles and accessorizing spaces with what is "on hand". Many designers use bricolage to come up with innovative and unique ideas.

[edit] Academics

[edit] Cultural studies

In cultural studies bricolage is used to mean the processes by which people acquire objects from across social divisions to create new cultural identities. In particular, it is a feature of subcultures such as, for example, the punk movement. Here, objects that possess one meaning (or no meaning) in the dominant culture are acquired and given a new, often subversive meaning. For example, the safety pin became a form of decoration in punk culture.

[edit] Philosophy

In his book The Savage Mind' (1962, English translation 1966), French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss used the word bricolage to describe any spontaneous action, further extending this to include the characteristic patterns of mythological thought. The reasoning here being that, since mythological thought is all generated by human imagination, it is based on personal experience, and so the images and entities generated through 'mythological thought' rise from pre-existing things in the imaginer's mind. ^[1]

Jacques Derrida extends this notion to any discourse. "If one calls bricolage the necessity of borrowing one's concept from the text of a heritage which is more or less coherent or ruined, it must be said that every discourse is bricoleur." ^[2]

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, in their 1972 book Anti-Oedipus, identify bricolage as the characteristic mode of production of the schizophrenic producer.^[3]

[edit] Biology

In biology the biologist François Jacob uses the term bricolage to describe the apparently cobbled-together character of much biological structure, and views it as a consequence of the evolutionary history of the organism. ^[4]

[edit] Education

In the discussion of constructionism, Seymour Papert discusses two styles of solving problems. Contrary to the analytical style of solving problems he describes bricolage as a way to learn and solve problems by trying, testing, playing around.

Joe L. Kincheloe has used the term bricolage in educational research to denote the use of multiperspectival research methods. In Kincheloe's conception of the research bricolage, diverse theoretical traditions are employed in a broader critical theoretical/critical pedagogical context to lay the foundation for a transformative mode of multimethodological inquiry. Using these multiple frameworks and methodologies researchers are empowered to produce more rigorous and praxiological insights into socio-political and educational phenomena. Kincheloe theorizes a critical multilogical epistemology and critical connected ontology to ground the research bricolage. These philosophical notions provide the research bricolage with a sophisticated understanding of the complexity of knowledge production and the interrelated complexity of both researcher positionality and phenomena in the world. Such complexity demands a more rigorous mode of research that is capable of dealing with the complications of socio-educational experience. Such a critical form of rigor avoids the reductionism of many monological, mimetic research orientations (see Kincheloe, 2001, 2005; Kincheloe & Berry, 2004).

[edit] Popular Culture

[edit] Fashion

In his essay "Subculture: The Meaning of Style", Dick Hebdige discusses how an individual can be identified as a bricoleur when they "appropriated another range of commodities by placing them in a symbolic ensemble which served to erase or subvert their original straight meanings".^[5] The fashion industry uses bricolage-like styles by incorporating items typically utilized for other purposes. For example, candy wrappers are woven together to produce a purse. The movie Zoolander parodies this interesting concept with Mugatu's Derelicte, a line of clothing made from trash.

[edit] Television

MacGyver is a television series in which the protagonist is the paragon of a bricoleur.^[6]

[edit] Information technology

[edit] Information systems

In information systems, bricolage is used by Claudio Ciborra to describe the way in which strategic information systems (SIS) can be built in order to maintain successful competitive advantage over a longer period of time than standard SIS. By valuing tinkering and allowing SIS to evolve from the bottom-up, rather than implementing it from the top-down, the firm will end up with something that is deeply rooted in the organisational culture that is specific to that firm and is much less easily imitated.^[7]

There is also a content management system called Bricolage.

[edit] Internet

In her book Life on the Screen (1995), Sherry Turkle discusses the concept of bricolage as it applies to problem solving in code projects and workspace productivity. She advocates the "bricoleur style" of programming as a valid and underexamined alternative to what she describes as the conventional structured "planner" approach. In this style of coding, the programmer works without an exhaustive preliminary specification, opting instead for a step-by-step growth and re-evaluation process. In her essay Epistemological Pluralism, Turkle writes: "The bricoleur resembles the painter who stands back between brushstrokes, looks at the canvas, and only after this contemplation, decides what to do next."

[edit] Business

[edit] Organization and Management

Karl Weick identifies the following requirements for successful bricolage in organizations.^[8]

• intimate knowledge of resources
• careful observation and listening
• trusting one's ideas
• self-correcting structures, with feedback

[edit] Everyday Life

Life itself is a bricolage of bricolages, meaning you never know what you are going to get the next day. You must use whatever resources available to survive, which essentially defines bricolage in the words of Levi-Strauss.

Household Items

A paperclip is an item than can be seen almost anywhere. Even though it's supposed to be used to hold papers together, it can be turned into a sculpture of some kind, or even a tool for carving/etching into things. One can even hook paperclips together to make chains or bracelets. Therefore, the paperclip is an evident example of bricolage.

Cooking

Cooking is an example of bricolage in our everyday life. Amateur cooks often improvise new recipes when key ingredients are scarce.

Construction of a Child's Fort

An example of bricolage in a child's every day life is a fort made of many different random objects found in one's environment including pillows, couch coushins, sheets, toys, hangers, shoe boxes, etc. A fort can be made with just about anything, regardless of its original purpose or use. This is the definition of bricolage, and is therefore evident in this example.

Foods

A well known example of bricolage may be the banana. While it does provide an excellent source of nutrition, it can also calm stomach aches, or help to moisturize the face when made into a mask. The banana peel can be used to buff shoes, polish silverware, and promote the healing of warts, scratches, and minor cuts.

The lime is a perfect example of bricolage. Although it is commonly used for cooking and adding flavor to foods, it is also used for cleaning. People have used it to clean pots and pans, it is an ingredient used in bathroom and glass cleaning supplies. Another interesting way it is used is as a hair product. Many people use it as a substitute for hair gel and hair spray.

[edit] References

[edit] Links

• Bricolage Wiki