Back to Bucky Basics

Sometimes you have to go back to go forward.

As one of my fav quotes (from the late Tim Barr, a film school mentor and special effects guru), I utilize the above short sentence whenever I want to justify to myself  what I’ve already decided to do, because at my age of 65, I’ve previously experienced much of what life has generously offered, and have the luxury to reflect on my past.

I’m rereading Utopia or Oblivion by R. Buckminster Fuller, a gift I received from my daughter, Samantha.  I read the book in my early adulthood in 1970 and it help set a positive tone for my life. Along with The Book – On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts, 1966, it revealed expanding areas of erudite thought to me previously undiscovered during my the years of my idilic Mid-Western childhood and formative teen years.

Utopia or Oblivion challenged my naive parochial thinking processes with Bucky’s comprehensive world view of doing more with less and the concept that there exists enough resources to supply a scientifically-fueled leap for mankind into a bright cooperative future resulting in the possibility of saving the world from nuclear oblivion.

In The Book – On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, Alan Watts delves into the cause and cure for the human condition of each individual living under a misconception that "the self" is a separate ego wrapped in skin, moved by muscles and bones, and controlled by a brain that confronts a universe of physical objects that are “alien and stupid”, and that this false conclusion underlines the continual misuse of technology resulting in an aggressive subjugation of human-kind’s organic environment leading to it’s (and our own) eventual destruction.

Since, at the time in my early 20s, I was searching for answers to the riddles posed to me by my earlier experience, these new, seemingly cooperative but foreign ideas, one spawned by mathematics and science, the other by ancient religion and philosophy, greatly piqued my interest. As a result, Bucky Fuller and Alan Watts became my teachers and inspirations for a fundamental renaissance in my thinking about the reality of the newly revealed world in which I found myself.

Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I was totally free to follow my instincts about what was really important in the world and my personal relationship to it. And, away I went.

I realized that I had allowed myself to veer off track in my educational momentum, allowed others to define my existence, and allowed distractions to color my vision of what I had always suspected: that I inherently knew what was best for me. So, I began reading more, sought out and listened to other points-of-view, and worked to understand Bucky Fuller’s revolutionary, insightful, futuristic but practical ideas, along with a liberal dash of humanistic philosophy from Alan Watts and his explanations of Vedanta.

Along with my interest in poetry, music, art, and filmmaking, I added comprehensive anticipatory design science and ancient Hindu philosophy.

As an introduction to Bucky, besides reading many of his writings, I began to build polyhedron models to explore with my own hands and mind to demonstrate the intrinsic energies and physical properties operative everywhere in the universe. But then, soon having some success in the field of my career choice, film making, and developing other interests (like martial arts, painting, and spending time with my wonderful wife and three awesome daughters) I spent more and more time at my vocation and domestic life, and less and less studying that which actually sparked so much of my creative interests and drive to learn in the first place.

Now that I am retired, I have more time for what I had considered as relatively unimportant background during my “productive” years.  So, besides authoring this blog, I am rereading the works of Bucky and Alan Watts, and revisiting the interests of my youth.

My first project is already underway - the construction of a 2.5 ft. diameter, 3 frequency geodesic sphere model, the beginning steps of which can be seen in the photo above.

I believe some experiences in life are worth visiting again and, so far, this one seems to be like a new trek through a familiar terrain - kind of like going home after a long and tiring, but very rewarding journey.

I hoping to learn a lot that I missed on my first trip so I'll keep you posted along the way.

My Geodesic Models & Terreriums

I've decided to make one of my first posts on this Bucky blog to be about my motivation for authoring it.

In looking back to when I first discovered R. Buckminster Fuller, I realized that his inventive use of geometry attracted me like a magnet.  I found this to be particularly ironic since, during my tenure as an high school student, math classes were particularly difficult for me to relate to the physical world that I inhabited.  Plane geometry, with its axioms and proofs, were abstract formulas to me and notions such as prime numbers, rational and irrational numbers were introduced to me as difficult concepts that were used mostly by those who possessed some secret that I wasn't privy to, at least that's how it seemed to me.

During that same year, as a ninth grader, I was encouraged by my father, to join my high school's football team and went to practice everyday without fail after school from September until the end of the season in late November.  Weighing in at 140 pounds, I was the smallest boy on the team and usually arrived home each evening pretty beat up and exhausted.  Then, after dinner, I attempted to do my homework in my room, but was afraid to ask my father for help since he had a degree as an aeronautical engineer, and managed a steel mill, a stressful career that left him with little patience for such a math novice as his son.

I remember him silently standing behind me at my desk, waiting for me to work a math problem and experiencing a paralyzing "brain freeze", a negative reaction of apprehension that was very distracting and counterproductive. It took me many years to get over feeling that way when pressed too hard to perform intellectual tasks in front of others. I realize that my late father, Bill, Sr. didn't intend that reaction in me but that's my perception of how it went.

So, I got behind in my math classes, and never really caught up again.  It seems that, at least during the time of my formal education, mathematics for me was like following the course of a railroad track - once you are off the track, it is difficult to get back on since the train keeps on going without you.

When I went to college, I stayed away from math courses because of my negative experience in high school, and had no interest, until I discovered Bucky.  Then, geometry suddenly made sense and the world opened up for me in many ways.

The following pictures are just some of the models and terrariums that I was inspired by the work of Prof. Fuller to explore and construct. His life and influence are so much more than merely the realm of his practical use of geometry, but, since he is mostly known for "inventing" the geodesic dome, I will start my re-discovery with my first mental connection to Bucky's magnificent intellect; the orderly, beautifully aesthetic regularities of polyhedra.

I built this 4 foot diameter 4 frequency icosahedron in about 1971 at my parent's home in Oakbrook, Illinois. At the time, my poor parents thought there was something seriously wrong with my brain.  I assembled this model from plastic drinking straws with cut-eraser hubs in their spare room in about 4 hours in a vain attempt at assuaging their fears.

My film-school friend Michael Simpson and I assembled this tetrahedron model on a picnic table in a park in Hollywood, California in about 1972, again from plastic drinking straws with cut-eraser hubs. When the structure was completed, it was very much stronger and rigid than one would expect from the flimsy materials from which it was made - a demonstration of synergy.

Another model made from plastic drinking straws with cut-eraser hubs was assembled in my Hollywood apartment on Gower and Hollywood Blvd. in 1971 (Notice the very tall palm trees out the window).  This one was a 4 frequency triacon icosahedron.  If you look closely you can see letters written on the straw struts to facilitate the pattern of assembly.  I loved living in this sunny apartment since it provided a bright but quiet studio-like space in the middle of the busy metropolitan environment of LA.

These models of a Plutonic polyhedra, an icosahedron on the left and an Archimedean polyhedra, a truncated octahedron on the right, built in Salt Lake City right after Anita and I married in 1973, were made of double thickness glass, copper-taped edges soldered together with lead, and sealed on the inside with silicon gel.  The soldered edges were then painted with acid creating a nice brown patina.  The icosahedron (left pic) is full of water as a leak test, and the truncated octahedron (right pic)t holds a dried flower arrangement by Anita.  We still have the little icosahedron on the left 40 years later.

Made in Salt Lake City in 1974, this was one of my favorite models. About 18 inches in diameter, the inside frame of this two frequency icosahedron was assembled from plastic drinking straws with cut-eraser hubs. The cover, made of vinyl plastic, was cut and sewn together by Anita and fit like the proverbial glove.  In this photo the model was set on a ceramic flower pot base with potted plants happily growing inside.  During the following winter in the backyard of our duplex, we dug up a small circle of earth, installed an electric heat wire in the dirt, planted some herbs and carrot seeds, and installed the little dome over it.  It lasted for about three months with the plants doing quite well during the long Rocky Mountain winter until a little four-year-old boy living next to us trudged through 4 inches of snow covering our back yard . . . and stomped our little dome.  Oh, well.

This two frequency Class 2 icosahedron terrarium featuring identical equilateral triangles, made in Salt Lake City in about 1976, had use as two separate "life zones" that housed plants and animals.  This one housed a northern forest zone that  contained a landscaped interior, small succulent plants, and brown salamanders.  The other use (no picture) was as a freshwater aquarium with simple water filtering system, and was populated with mudskippers, small air-breathing fish.  The salamanders lasted quite a while, but the mudskippers lived only a few months.

This Archimedean polyhedra called a cuboctahedron, which I built in Spokane, Washington in 2006, was the first terrarium I made after a 30-year hiatus from my hobby.  I like the copperr-colored patina on the soldered edges on this one. I sent it to my daughter Beth and her husband Chris in Pittsburg PA, but I failed to pack it well enough and, sadly, one of the glass faces cracked.

The last terrarium that I built was the most difficult to assemble. Made in Spokane, Washington in 2007, this Archimedean polyhedra, called a snub hexahedron, featuring squares and equilateral triangles, is about two feet in diameter.  Anita and I moved it with us to Central Utah in 2008, and then to Asheville, North Carolina in early 2011.  It now resides at the home of our daughter, Anna and her husband Justin here in Asheville.

Utopia or Oblivion

Tension Integrity Sphere
This model, currently displayed at the Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center in downtown Asheville, was actually constructed by R. Buckminster Fuller.

I'm beginning to believe in fate again.

I find myself in Asheville, North Carolina.

My wife and I relocated to Asheville because our eldest daughter, Anna, lives here with her husband, Justin.  In looking for a place to retire, besides having family here, we chose Asheville because it has a very active and diverse art and music community, wonderful educational opportunities, is located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, and has a friendly southeast population.

A fact that I had not known when we relocated to Asheville was that it happens to be only a few miles from Black Mountain, the former home of Black Mountain College, a school that I remember from my college days as being one of the places that my hero, Bucky Fuller, taught in 1948. 

Black Mountain College was "created as an experiment of education in a democracy, with the idea that the creative arts and practical responsibilities are equal in importance in the developement of the intellect".

I discovered Bucky Fuller while a film student in Los Angeles in 1970.  For a reason I can't remember, I got a copy of Bucky's Utopia or Oblivion: the prospects for humanity.  It was a difficult read with many long, spiraling sentences that frequently required rereading to uncover Bucky's comprehensive meaning, but worth every second to anyone wanting to delve into his provocative but practical theories.

Reading Bucky's book was life-changing for me.  

For years after reading it, I constructed many geodesic models from plastic straw struts with cut eraser hubs, and many large functional glass terrariums.  I also read many more Bucky books.  But, when my film making career kicked into gear, I generally left behind my Bucky hobby for the pleasures and responsibilities of family life. Besides, having stacks of sharp-edged cut glass triangles waiting for assemblage into terrariums around a home populated with small children seemed counter-productive.

About a  month ago, I was alerted by my daughter in Asheville, Anna, that there was a play about Bucky currently playing at the NC Stage Theater called R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe.  Watching that great play from our front-row seats re-inspired me to revisit Bucky and his extraordinary solutions for the success of all humanity.

In the words of Robert W. Marks found in the introduction of Utopia or Oblivion, describing Bucky, 

"There is . . . no one who has more important things to say, no one whose ideas are more directly pointed to the attainable goals of a free and abundant life, no one more functionally attuned to the structural symbiosis of science and society."

My purpose in authoring this blog is to create interest in R. Buckminster Fuller's ideas as I rediscover his scientifically fueled, attainable goal of humanity's possibility to solve the physical problems of its existence utilizing the real wealth of the world: information and energy.