樂高迷創意的消費生產與反抗

Abstract

樂高積木（LEGO bricks）作為世界上最成功的堆砌玩具（building toys），吸引許多國內外管理學背景的學者探究樂高公司成功經驗背後的原因。然而樂高的廣大成功，卻不是樂高公司獨自的力量足以達到的。實際上「樂高文化」是樂高、全球影視娛樂產業與樂高迷三者間緊密結合下之產物。在此其中，網路社群作為非正式的推廣媒介，其影響力更甚於樂高公司的行銷作為。成年樂高迷—阿福（adult fans of LEGO, AFOLs）扮演了推廣、評論甚至挑戰樂高玩具最重要的先鋒角色；樂高迷的創意也成為樂高公司新產品重要的靈感來源。

有別於過往側重管理策略、工業設計、教學應用與藝術治療的研究取徑來探討樂高，本研究欲從樂高迷的消費者角度切入，探討生產與消費間複雜的互動關係：從文化工業的脈絡到創意產業的時代，樂高從標準化的積木玩具，如何發展成轉化樂高迷的文化創意作為新生產模式？將樂高與樂高迷放在物質文化與消費社會學的討論脈絡中進行檢視，在當代消費社會中，樂高的物質性與消費者實踐是如何被形塑與建構的？在迷文化與DIY 文化的討論中來看待樂高迷與其社群如何形成與運作；體現了怎樣的能動性與侷限；其創意展演反映了怎樣的時代與社會意義？

本研究以多重研究方法進行，首先以深度訪談樂高迷與創作玩家、樂高社群網站管理者與樂高展覽策展人，廣泛地認識各種涉入程度的樂高迷之樂高經驗與其創意展演的情形；輔以出版書籍、媒體文本與樂高迷創作進行文本分析；最後以研究者即樂高迷的視角進行田野調查，參與樂高迷社群的聚會，「玩」樂高並且反思自身樂高實踐的意義。

樂高迷充分掌握了樂高可自由重組與重新賦予意義的特性，發展出多元面貌的樂高延伸文本；網路社群的運作使得創意交換與集體創作成為可能，突破由樂高公司所形塑與支配的樂高地景；關心環保議題與追求社會正義的時代氛圍，激發樂高迷具有反身性思考的創意展演。本研究企圖藉由審視樂高迷的創意展演，找尋文化創意的新可能性─具備反身性思考的另類文化創意。As the most widespread building toys in the world, LEGO attracted much research attention from the scholars of management science to explore the causesof such tremendous success. Nevertheless, the LEGO group might have never achieved such fame without the engagement of fans’ community. Actually, “LEGO culture” was an inseparable synthesis of LEGO, media culture and LEGO fans’ performance. As the informal propaganda, fans’ creativity was even more influential than the formal marketing activities. AFOLs (adult fans of LEGO) were in the vanguard of feedback, promotion and even criticism. Furthermore, AFOLs’ breathtaking MOCs (my own creations) frequently inspired the new-set development.

This study is differentiated from former researches by its approach. Through analyzing the AFOLs’ consumer practice, it tries to discuss the complicated interaction between production and consumption. From the context of Frankfurt School’s “Cultural Industry” to current issues of creative industries, how could the LEGO bricks reconstruct itself from a standardizing mechanical reproduction into a continued innovation what was based on fans’ creativity? Under the theories of material culture and consumer society, how did the materiality of LEGO bricks and consumer practice be shaped and conceptualized? With a dialogue to theories of fan culture and DIY culture, it attempts to realize how did the AFOLs’ community be formed and operated. What kinds of agency and limitation the community embodied? What was the significance the AFOLs’ performance reflected? This qualitative study focuses on multiple research methods. It firstly involves in-depth interviews with elite fans, communities’ Facebook-page editors and curators of LEGO events, to widely recognize AFOLs’ experience from every level of involvement. Second, discourse analysis is adopted in publications such as fan’s autobiography, media texts and MOCs atlases, to analyze the (be-) imagined subjectivity of AFOLs and its’ community. The fieldwork is lastly conducted in LEGO exhibition and AFOLs’ annual event. As an AFOL, the researcher plays the bricks, creates some MOCs, participates in fans’ event and reflect on the significance of his practice and performance.

Most AFOLs fully understood the bricks are reconstructable and free to give meaning, and developed multiple dimensions of extensive text of LEGO culture. The community made the collective creativity and team-works possible, broadened the LEGO landscape which was originally dominated by the LEGO group. Responding to the atmosphere of environmentalism and social justice, some AFOLs demonstrated a “reflexive creativity”. By means of analyzing AFOLs’ performance, this study has endeavored to re-define the significance of so-called “cultural creativity”.