Synergetics Resources
This is a comprehensive list of resources regarding the study of Synergetics, Geometry, Design, the work of Buckminster Fuller and the shape of space.
If you would like to contribute resources to this list:
please send an email to SynergeticsUniversity@gmail.com
WEBSITES & "TRIMTABS"
The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller
"The Estate facilitates the initiatives of publishers, museums, authors, artists, filmmakers, and researchers by providing access to archival images, text, audio, video and film."
The Buckminster Fuller Institute
"For 30 years, BFI has served the international network of Fuller-inspired innovators through the maintenance of a comprehensive Information Clearinghouse on R.B Fuller, including a detailed inventory of the practices and principles informing Fuller's approach to design innovation; articles featuring contemporary applications of Fuller's approach published in BFI's website, monthly email newsletter, and on-line books; audio and video archives; and Dymaxion Artifacts, BFI's online store featuring educational tools."
Allegra Fuller Snyder
"American dance ethnologist (ethnochoreologist), choreographer, professor and author specializing on dance and culture." Daughter of Buckminster Fuller and Anne Hewlett. Website
Synergetics Collaborative
"The Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together a diverse group of people with an interest in Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics in face-to-face workshops, symposia, seminars, pow-wows, and other meetings to educate and support research and understanding of the many facets of Synergetics, its methods and principles."
Bonnie Devarco
"...currently serves on a variety of advisory boards, including the founding boards of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge Prize and Places & Spaces - Mapping Science International Exhibition series. She served as archivist for the Buckminster Fuller collection from 1989-1995 and continues to work with the Fuller Collection at Stanford University. She is completing a book on Fuller titled Invisible Architecture II, is currently co-authoring Shape of Thought on the history and evolution of visual language with Eileen Clegg and is co-editing a book on Ludic Cartographies with Stanford University’s Humanities Lab."
R. W. Gray
Full text of Synergetics 1&2 as well as many other helpful inquiries into subjects related to Synergetics.
"I have been studying Fuller's work for several years and I am now in the process of making my notes available through these web pages. I hope that by working together we can go through Fuller's work and pull together a consistent presentation of his ideas. Being a physics and mathematics oriented person, I have concentrated on Fuller's science and mathematics related work. Even if you're not science oriented I hope you'll find these pages interesting."
Joe Clinton
"Joseph is globally recognized for his association with R. Buckminster Fuller. Their collaboration resulted in a number of computer models for designing geodesic and kinetic structures. They have become the classic design basics for most modern day geodesic structures. Joseph has continued to investigate kinetic systems and minimal surface structures and applies them to design problems."
Medard Gabel
"worked with Buckminster Fuller for 12 years on a variety of projects—from work on the foundations of a Regenerative Resource Industry to participating in the first and designing and running subsequent World Game Workshops, to organizing Fuller’s archives, arranging the 42-hour video lecture by Buckminster Fuller presenting “everything I know,” and designing multiple versions of the World Game, including the World Climate Change Game, World Environment Game, World Diversity Game, and the online NetWorld Game. He is now working on WorldGame 2.0 with colleagues from the World Game Institute and the Global Solutions Lab, and writing a number of books." -Wikipedia
The Earth Dashboard is a project of EarthGame™ a non-profit tax-exempt research and education organization whose mission is to build the EarthGame and it's associated set of tools for global and local problem recognition,
definition and solution.
Kirby Urner
Educator of Synergetics and one of the pioneers of Synergetics on the web.
Kurt Przybilla
Inventor of a spinning top with more than 1 axis of spin called Tetratops. Writer and producer of the 3d video experience - The Molecularium project.
Daniel Lopez Perez
"has a PhD in the history and theory of architecture at Princeton University, is an Associate Professor and a founding faculty member of the Architecture Program at the University of San Diego. López-Pérez edited Fuller in Mexico/Fuller en México! and R. Buckminster Fuller: World Man, awarded as Design Book of the Year 2013 by Architect magazine."
Author of the book R. Buckminster Fuller: Pattern-Thinking.
John Charter’s "Pure Conceptuality"
CJ Fearnley
"CJ has applied his organizational and leadership talent to building Buckminster Fuller's legacy. CJ published an essay "Reading Synergetics: Some Tips" to help students of Fuller's magnum opus, "Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking". He has maintained "The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ" since 1994. In 2002 CJ started building the Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC) as an organization to bring together people with an interest in Synergetics' methods and principles in workshops, symposia, seminars, and other meetings."
Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC)
"The Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together a diverse group of people with an interest in Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics in face-to-face workshops, symposia, seminars, pow-wows, and other meetings to educate and support research and understanding of the many facets of Synergetics, its methods and principles."
Gerald de Jong
"Gerald de Jong has been active building tensegrities for years. He created Fluidium, a virtual world with virtual creatures that evolved a la Karl Sims. The artificial life was based on tensegrity structures, also known as elastic interval geometry."
George Hart
"Hart's publications center on mathematical applications in sculpture and other fields. His extensive online Encyclopedia of Polyhedra provides a substantial reference, which is used by students and researchers around the world. His groundbreaking Multidimensional Analysis text (Springer Verlag, 1995) gives fresh insight into the structures of linear algebra. His Zome Geometry book (Key Curriculum Press, 2001) takes the reader on a hands-on tour of the structures possible in three-dimensional space, and is designed to spark students' interest in geometry. He has been in the process of slowly writing a book on the history of geometry in art."
Umair Zia
"A multi-disciplinary designer, Umair founded Living Systems Design Research Group at the National College of Arts, Lahore in 2010 where he established and pioneered the synergistic design process for nature gadgets, fusing craftsmanship and nature to deliver projects that align with principles of technological sustainability. Umair became a regular assistant professor at NCA in 2017."
Mansoor Vakili
Systems thinking
Alexander Graham Bell
Known as being the inventor of the telephone but had interesting explorations and investigations of tetrahedra and their use in structures like giant Kites. His explorations of geometry are very similar to Fuller's and it raises questions around whether Fuller was influenced by Bell.
Dr. Henry Segerman
"A British American mathematician and mathematical artist at Oklahoma State University"
Ask Nature
"Ask Nature is a project of the Biomimicry Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the practice of looking to nature for inspiration to solve design problems in a regenerative way."
Terrapin Bright Green - Biophilic Design
"We believe that reconnecting people with the environment will lead to a healthy, prosperous, and regenerative future for all. We leverage high-performance design, whole systems thinking, and research in biophilic design, bioinspired innovation, and ecological design to make this goal a reality. This breadth of work and experience enables us to develop creative, impactful solutions for our clients."
Stuart Mcmillin's Energy Slaves Comic
"...A thoughtful comic that weaves together multiple topics. I discuss environmental and civilisational issues involving energy consumption. I examine these issues both from both personal and societal levels."
Tom Greenbaum's "Karmatetra"
Victor Acevedo
"Victor Acevedo is a pioneer digital artist having started making computer art images in 1983. Since the 1990s he has been well known for his digital print work. However, since 2007 his primary focus has been working with video and producing (electronic) visual music works."
Geodesic Math Links
A somewhat dates repository of links related to Fuller and Synergetics.
Anatomy Trains - BioTensegrity
Public Domain Review
"dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas – focusing on works now fallen into the public domain, the vast commons of out-of-copyright material that everyone is free to enjoy, share, and build upon without restrictions."
Tensegrity Wiki
Videos
Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC)
"The Synergetics Collaborative (SNEC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together a diverse group of people with an interest in Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics in face-to-face workshops, symposia, seminars, pow-wows, and other meetings to educate and support research and understanding of the many facets of Synergetics, its methods and principles."
David Koski
Educational Videos about Synergetics and developments of the "E" module
Kirby Urner
Video Diaries and educational videos about Synergetics
Daniel Ari Friedman
Readings of Synergetics
Struppi Pohl
Educational Videos about Synergetics
George Hart
"Hart's educational activities reach students at all levels. He has developed many original workshop activities which use art-related ways to engage students in thinking mathemtically about patterns, structure, and relationships."
Dan Suttin's Octa-tetra Museum
Buckminster Fuller & Werner Erhard conversation
Buckminster Fuller: The Story of An Intellectual Outlaw
Buckminster Fuller - Lost Interviews
by George Hart for Simons Foundation
Articles & PDFs
by Medard Gabel
The Futurist magazine, October 2006
by Howard Brown, Robert Cook & Medard Gabel
by Yasushi Kajikawa
by Jay Baldwin
by Buckminster Fuller
Portfolio and Art News Annual, No.4, 1961
by Robert Burkhardt
by Michael Ben-Eli
by Josh Pang
by Terrapin Bright Green
Helpful Wikipedia Articles
"is commonly a curve representing in some sense the shortest path (arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold"
"The term was coined by Buckminster Fuller in the 1960s as a portmanteau of "tensional integrity". The other denomination of tensegrity, floating compression, was used mainly by the constructivist artist Kenneth Snelson."
"a logical argument(s) of a 'suite of four discrete functions' or 'an indivisible quaternity' that has multiple applications and has been important in the Dharmic traditions of Indian logic, the Buddhist logico-epistemological traditions, particularly those of the Madhyamaka school, and in the skeptical Greek philosophy of Pyrrhonism"
Books
By Fuller
4-D Timelock, 1928
Nine Chains to the Moon, 1938
Education Automation, 1962
Untitled Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization, 1962
Ideas and Integrities, 1963
World Design Science Decade, 1963-1967
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1969
Utopia or Oblivion: The Prospects for Humanity, 1969
Buckminster Fuller to the Children of Earth, 1972
Intuition, 1972
Earth, Inc., 1973
Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, 1975
Tetrascroll, 1975
And It Came to Pass--Not to Stay, 1976
On Education,1979
Synergetics 2: Further Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, 1979
Critical Path, 1981
Grunch of Giants, 1983
Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller, 1983
Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity, 1992
Notable Books
Others
