The Science of the Concrete

Abstract

When the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss introduced the concept of bricolage in La Pensée Sauvage, he noted that the verb form, bricoler, was traditionally used “with reference to some extraneous movement,” as a kind of rebound or swerving; the bricoleur he wrote, “is still someone who works with his hands and uses devious means compared to those of a craftsman.”1 Though counterposed to a rigorous science that develops tools from raw materials, the “heterogeneous repertoire” of bricolage nevertheless can allow for “brilliant unforeseen results” and potentially new forms of knowledge. Recent art and critical activities have renewed interest in these “devious means,” in part as a way of revisiting the use-value of the readymade and, more pointedly, as a way of addressing a globalizing consumer culture.