Building Blocks: A Cultural History of Codes, Compositions and Dispositions

Jose Muñoz Alvis

Published by transcript Verlag 2020

Building Blocks

A Cultural History of Codes, Compositions and Dispositions

Jose Muñoz Alvis
Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Volume 207 in the series Edition Kulturwissenschaft

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839447819

Overview
Contents

About this book

Building blocks are practical materials for playing, learning and working at kindergartens, schools, universities and companies. How did building blocks, which were primarily established as toys for children, come to be practical materials used in professional and educational settings?
This study explores the historical implications of particular sets of building blocks in the interdisciplinary consolidation and transformation of techniques, materials, discourses and subjects. By mapping the genealogy of building blocks from Fröbel's »gifts« to their current systematization as interlocked blocks, this study proposes that building blocks should be understood not exclusively as concrete objects, but as the materiality of a combinatorial program, which delineates a modular system characterized by a code of composition, a context-neutrality and a semantic component.

Author / Editor information

Jose Muñoz Alvis is an industrial designer and cultural scientist. He completed his PhD at Humboldt University of Berlin in 2018. His research interests include the practices of modeling and transferring of knowledge between the natural sciences and design disciplines. His work in design includes consulting in communication and product design as well as in the application of participatory design strategies. Currently, he is a lecturer at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences/Bauhaus in Dessau. He was a visiting scientist at the Image Knowledge Gestaltung, an Interdisciplinary Laboratory Cluster of Excellence at Humboldt University in Berlin.

Supplementary Materials

Leseprobe

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
2 From Crystallography to Pedagogy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
3 Play, Building and Gestalten Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
4 The Languages of Functionalized Blocks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
5 The Shaping of Modularity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
6 Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
List of Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 318
Keywords: Cultural Techniques; Building Blocks; Modularization; Kindergarten; Education; Design; Technology; Cultural History; History of Education; History of Technology; Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: May 27, 2020
ISBN: 9783839447819