"How exactly, in the last half decade, has the "action figure", in all of its myriad cross-marketed incarnations, captured the imaginations of children and adults? What "discrepancy" of scale, schema, sex, and spirit thus makes miniaturized men, women, and monsters of resin, plastic, lead, rubber, or wood so functionally prevalent in global commerce and individual fantasy? In Sherry Turkle's view, "evocative objects" such as action figures "bring philosophy down to Earth. When we focus on objects, physicians and philosophers, psychologists and designers, artists and engineers are able to find common ground in everyday experience" (Turkle 8). Applying Levi-Strauss' notion of the bricoleur, or a "practitioner of the science of the concrete" who "manipulates a closed set of materials to develop new thoughts" out of bricolage in tandem with Piaget's assessment of instructive play rooted in "close to the object thinking" meant to heighten awareness of the "number, space, time, causality, and life" of things, Turkle provides a profoundly simple perspective on how "object play-for adults as well as children-engaged the heart as well as the mind" (Turkle 308-309). How can we examine our unique attraction to miniature plastic effigies and their contexts?"
January 1, 1970