The Floating Bones Journal
The physics of our musculoskeletal system, structural health, and the profound value of body/mind work.
02
2009
Tensional integrity is a very recent concept for our civilization. In A Fuller Explanation, Amy Edmondson talks about its origins:
In the summers of 1947 and 1948, Fuller taught at Black Mountain College, and spoke constantly of “tensional integrity”. Universe seems to rely on continuous tension to embrace islanded compression elements, he mused; we must find a way to model this structural principle. Much to his delight, a student and later well-known sculptor, Kenneth Snelson, provided the answer. He presented his discovery to Fuller: a small structure consisting of three separated struts held rigidly in place with a few strings.
You can see an image of Snelson’s early sculptures here. For more images from this remarkable sculptor, look at his website.
Most of us haven’t had an opportunity to play with a tensegrity; having one in hand helps tremendously to understand them. Fortunately, you can buy one of these at your local toy store or from Amazon.com: it’s called a Skwish Toy. Get a Skwish! Body/mind workers: get several of these toys; figure out ways to use them in your classes. Better yet, get one of the medical-grade models from Tom Flemons.
With a tensegrity in hand, you can see two very important principles:
You’ll see that the structure is smooshable when you push it in any direction. Buckminster Fuller calls this omnitensional integrity. Fuller notes, “Tensegrity provides the ability to yield increasingly without ultimately breaking or coming asunder.”
If you smoosh the structure very slowly, you will notice that it pushes back against the smoosh very little at first. The push-back will increase as you deform the structure more. A balanced tensegrity is very fluid-like; when it gets out of balance, it starts to become rigid. The structure behaves in a non-Hookean manner—a fancy way of saying nonlinear. As Dr. Levin notes on his website, this nonlinear behavior is crucial to moving our structures with energy efficiency.
Who ever thought that a child’s toy could show you something so profound?
1 Comment until now
On March 31st, 2009
AASI Said:
Phil,
For years in my studio, I’ve used those little figure toys where you push the bottom up and the figure collapses into pieces, then you let go and it pops right back up. I have a Pinocchio and a scottie dog. It makes me sit up a bit more just to think of them.
I used a snake for years, the kind you get at the amusement park that you hold at one end and it wiggles back and forth.
I also used to have one of the toys, similar to the one pictured, that opened and closed, that is, got bigger and smaller, but the one you suggest is really neat.
It’s now on my wish list. Thanks!
Imagery has been my bag ever since I started teaching. I’ve used all kinds.
For a long time now, I’ve been using “literal” imagery, or anatomical imagery, starting with “Mr. Art Ticulate” otherwise known as “Artie”, our studio skeleton. We use the anatomy coloring book a lot.
And I teach a pelvis sculpting workshop. Participants get a whole different idea of how the pelvis is shaped inside of them when they spiral the figure-8 armature into position and start adding the clay, forming all the nooks and uneven surfaces. Can’t wait to sculpt the sacrum.
Carole