Buckminster Fuller Calling

I recently composed and recorded this song using a small part of the beginning of a phone call that R. Buckminster Fuller was attempting to make. I think it is ironic that he has to repeat his name since everyone on Spaceship Earth should know of him and his work as a futurist, poet, engineer, educator, design scientist, and inventor.

But, maybe this song (?) will catch on.

The chimes are played by Anita Gayle.

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.

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.