In the autumn of 1948, while experimenting with ways to build flexible, modular towers, a young artist named Kenneth Snelson constructed a sort of sculpture that had never been seen before. As ethereal in appearance as a mobile, with no obvious weight-bearing elements, it nonetheless retained its shape and stability.
Figure 1. Tensegrity, a concept invented by Kenneth Snelson for use in sculptures, describes a structure that retains its integrity under tension. Consisting of struts and cables, these three-dimensional assemblages may soar into the sky, float out across landscapes or describe more familiar geometric figures. Tensegrities appear in high art, low art and nature, as illustrated by Snelson's sculpture "Needle Tower" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., a spider web and a child's toys (Stik-Trix and Tensegritoy, left and right). All of these structures hold their shape because of internal tension, yet mathematical generalizations of their sometimes complex structure have been difficult to develop. The authors have used the mathematical tools of group theory and representation theory, combined with the graphic capabilities of computers, to develop a complete catalogue of tensegrities with certain prescribed types of stability and symmetry.
Photograph at right courtesy of Kenneth Snelson; upper left photograph courtesy of Design Science Toys Ltd; lower left Scott Camazine/Photo Researchers, Inc.
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