Tensegrity is a property of materials pretty much under their own tension.. holding themselves up to their own bootstraps kind of approach to building.. and could maybe be thought of as a principle of self-organization.. A structure or system that is internally balanced by forces equal and opposing.. so a structure will find or resolve into its own / optimal structure.. At least that is how I am thinking about it.. A robust and resilient enough structure when one of the forces break.. falls into a new state. A new stable equilibrium. A structure hard to predict but one that will fall into place if that principle of internal tension is upheld.
Umbrella bones from damaged (in weather).. i.e. manipulated by there world to become sub-optimal structures were subject to building where the law i applied was (1.) maintain internal tension and (2.) wire either hole to hole or hole to loop. No other rule was applied (at this stage):
In the following images, the uncanny resemblance to fish and birds in flight. suggests the nature of form itself. Where form is nothing other than an expression of motion. Here the motion suggested has a coherence due to the tensegrous nature of the structures. It makes me wonder about the forms of things that we only think of as behaviours normally.. depending on the feedback loops.. and internal strain mediated by the feedback.. different systems and their accompanying behaviours – (motion that is repetitive and persists) will lend itself to different forms. Weather which is chaotic may look less coherent as a form, but something – like a social grouping with set behaviour patterns may have a motion that is more tensegrous. I am thinking as I am writing.. so these ideas are going to be loose. I wonder what they would look like if I built them? below are the fish and bird like manifestations of motion.. which also look like the fish and bird themselves.. so perhaps my form – which would make sense – is also a manifestation of my motions and all forms.. if they manifest are a mirror or echo of the motion that brought them about.
(fish and bird in flight – front view)
