Untitled - CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

Nearing the end of a longer than long week, I set out to feature a piece of eye candy, to steer clear of any images that might be thought-provoking. Instead I settled on this R. Buckminster Fuller design model: pretty, yes; uncomplicated, no. (It happens to be one of the untitled works in the collection, which dodges having to grapple with any mathematical concept/s represented by the model. Icosahedrwhat?)

Passingly familiar with Bucky as an architect who popularized the geodesic dome and designed the visionary Dymaxion projects, a quick read-up suggests he might more truthfully be characterized as a polymath deeply influenced by his Transcendentalist heritage in both his philosophy and practice. This was a man who had Very Big Thoughts.

Prior to having had a decent night’s sleep, I would have rambled trying to capture in words the thoughts this image provoked in me—something to do with butterflies and Hester Prynne and synchronicity. By daylight, it seems far simpler to say that the object pictured above can be viewed as part of an effort to explain the interconnectedness of the universe.

To give credit where it’s due, this and the other 152 scale models in SIUC’s collection were constructed by Charles Bryan Ryan, a University of Oregon art professor commissioned by Fuller in the early 1960s to give structural form to his mathematical principles.

Written by Ellen K. Corrigan, Associate Professor, Cataloging Services, Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University

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