Fuller Today
The Buckminster Fuller symposium at Cooper Union in New York City on September 12th and 13th was a resounding success! The sold-out event represented the culmination of the Whitney Museum's exhibit, Buckminster Fuller Starting with the Universe, which travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in March 2009.
Many thanks to extrememediastudies.org for the images above. To read their thoroughly blogged overview of the event click here.
We look forward to the Whitney Museum's posting of the video of the event in its entirety in the coming months.
Allegra Fuller Snyder's moving talk served as the touchstone for the entire event. Click "Read more" for the full text of Allegra's address.
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Listen to interviews of Bonnie DeVarco and David McConville and learn how thanks to a creative re-visioning of his concept and the application of the latest digital visualization technologies, Fuller's Geoscope will be coming to life soon in ways far more powerful than his own original conception.
» click here to listen to the podcast |
by Thomas T. K. Zung
reprinted from BFI newsletter Trimtab, Vol.17 no.2
On July 12th, 2004, Fuller's 109th birthday, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing a commemorative Buckminster Fuller Stamp! 2004 was chosen as the year to release the stamp as it marks the 50th anniversary of Fuller's patent for the geodesic dome. The image by artist Boris Artzybasheff originally appeared on the cover of TIME magazine on January 10th, 1964. Special thanks go out to BFI Board Member Thomas Zung, who spearheaded this effort for a commemorative USPS stamp. Read below about how the stamp came to be.
Global Thinking
Buckminster Fuller was one of our world’s first futurists and global thinkers. His headquarters, the “Inventory of World Resources, Human Trends and Needs,” contained the findings of his extensive global research. Beginning in the 30s, Fuller correlated this data and made a number of important and accurate predictions about the future of our society. His work in this regard paved the way for contemporary trend watchers like Tom Peters, John Naisbitt, and Alvin Toffler.
In October 2004, SNEC's Chris Fearnly began selecting, posting and periodically updating a collection of "Buckminster Fuller In The News" articles which discuss Fuller or related subjects (geodesic domes, synergetics, fullerene chemistry, etc). Some articles highlight people who were influenced by Fuller but otherwise do not discuss Fuller or his work. Great work and many thanks Chris!
» click here to see the latest updates
from Jay Baldwin
A number of people have asked me, “How could Bucky believe in God and still claim to be a scientist? Would he likely agree with what has recently been dubbed, “Intelligent Design?” To answer this without falling into the ego-trap of attempting to mind-read Bucky, I hereby present some early quotes taken from the Synergetics Dictionary, E.J. Applewhite. Editor, (Garland, 1986), Synergetics 1 and Synergetics 2, by Buckminster Fuller and edited by E.J Applewhite. ”. and conclude with his final words on the subject taken from his last book, Cosmography, Kiyoshi Kuromiya, Adjuvant (Macmillan, 1992).
by Vinay Gupta from worldchanging.com
A Video News Report from 2030.
Anchor: Touting their movement as a combination of the economic theories of Mahatma Gandhi and the political science of Buckminster Fuller the Unplugged have now reduced the GDP of the United States of America by 20% over their 15 year programme.
Opponents of the movement call Unplugging an unscientific and cult-like political movement, but proponents say that "Unplugging" was the best decision they ever made. Let's hear from Jack Huston, a former investment banker...
By ALASTAIR GORDON | Published: January 11, 2007
Photograph courtesy of Bryce Harper | The New York Times
BRUCE NELKIN decided in the 10th grade that he would someday live in a geodesic dome, after seeing a picture of one in a science book. “It looked like something out of ‘Star Wars,’ ” Mr. Nelkin said. “I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen, and I said to myself, ‘When I grow up I’m going to build one of those.’ ”
» read the rest of this article
 from 'Interior Design' — August 2006 — Designers innovative pieces are informed by the works by Fuller, Safdie, and Van Der Rohe
In the 19th century, Chicago architect Louis Sullivan coined the phrase "form follows function." Today, the Chicago Furniture Designers Association borrowed the still-relevant words to dub its 2006 exhibit. "Form Follows Form, Architecturally Inspired Furniture," which was held September 21—October 28, presented the creations of Chicago designers that honor the tradition and the institution of architecture itself. Suddenly, the act of building furniture took on a whole new meaning, as designers integrated architectural concepts into their pieces. The show was held in the Upper Level Sculpture Gallery in the Paul V. Galvin Library at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Some of the entries in the juried show included a Buckminster Fuller-inspired chair by John Kriegshauser that is so structurally efficient, it weighs less than 3 pounds but can support a large man; an infinitely reconfigurable coffee table by Robert Frazier that takes it cues from Moshe Safdie; Dolly Spragins's whimsical "Windy City," inspired by the elasticity of skyscrapers; and Lisa Elkins's coffee table, which references Mies Van Der Rohe's Crown Hall.
Buckminster Fuller and his wife Anne's dome home in Illinois
RBF Dome NFP is a synergetic system of activities that we anticipate to be the most efficient way for our organization to assist in the effectuation of Fuller's challenge: to make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.
Our goals:
- To achieve recognition as a National Historic Landmark for the dome home in Carbondale, Illinois that was the home of Anne and Buckminster Fuller from 1960 until 1971.
- To increase awareness of Fuller's concepts and principles by creating a museum and information hub in the dome.
- To disseminate tools to youth that demonstrate Fuller's work to increase awareness of his ideas among the young minds that were the inspiration for his life's work.
- To demonstrate through our actions the paradigmatic opportunity for a sustainable, peaceful, utopian society for 100% of humanity that Fuller knew to be possible if we would nurture the cause of livingry and reject the call to weaponry.
» Click here to find out more
from PRWEB
A visual and musical event at Santa Monica Pier where the audience experiences the performance from inside the instrument.
Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California (PRWEB) November 11, 2005 -- The internationally renowned MASS Ensemble's large-scale instruments and kinetic performances have enthralled and delighted audiences throughout the U.S. and abroad. Now, the performance group that invented the world's largest stringed instrument has partnered with the prestigious experience design firm o2 creative solutions to create MASS MUSIC DOME, a completely immersive visual and musical performance event, in which the venue is the musical instrument.
Forget geodesic domes. Buckminster Fuller wanted to save spaceship earth by designing assembly-line homes - that would be delivered by zeppelin.
Boston Globe
By Drake Bennett | October 23, 2005
TODAY, WHEN PEOPLE hear the name R. Buckminster Fuller, most probably think of geodesic domes: leaky hippie houses, Cold War radar installations, Epcot Center, jungle gyms.
But as Michael John Gorman, a historian of science and a former associate curator of Stanford University's Buckminster Fuller Collection, writes in his illuminating new book, "Buckminster Fuller: Designing for Mobility" (Skira), those few associations hardly do justice to Fuller, who was born in Milton and died in 1983 at the age of 87.
October 21, 2005
Researchers at Rice University have built a one-molecule car, complete with working chassis, axles, and wheels.
Rice University scientists have constructed a car a little wider than a strand of DNA, complete with rotating wheels, functioning axles, and a chassis.
The design details of the world's smallest vehicle will be published in a future edition of the journal Nanoletters, according to a statement issued Thursday.
Scientists working on single-molecule machines with a mechanical function have created molecules that resemble motors, switches, turnstiles, gears, gyroscopes, and even elevators.
Click here to find out more
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