Bricolage

In the arts, bricolage (French for "DIY" or "do-it-yourself projects") is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process.

The term bricolage has also been used in many other fields, including philosophy, critical theory, education, computer software, and business.

Bricolage is a French loanword that means the process of improvisation in a human endeavor. The word is derived from the French verb bricoler ("to tinker"), with the English term DIY ("Do-it-yourself") being the closest equivalent of the contemporary French usage. In both languages, bricolage also denotes any works or products of DIY endeavors.

Instrumental bricolage in music includes the use of found objects as instruments, such as:

Stylistic bricolage is the inclusion of common musical devices with new uses. Shuker writes, "Punk best emphasized such stylistic bricolage".

Musical bricolage flourishes in music of sub-cultures where:

Unlike other bricolage fields, the intimate knowledge of resources is not necessary. Many punk musicians, for instance, are not musically trained, because they believe training can discourage creativity in preference for accuracy. Also, 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 and self-correcting structures such as targeted audiences.

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

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

Bricolage can also be applied to theatrical forms of improvisation, where the main strategy is to use the environment and materials at hand. 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 are 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?").

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