As a result of the last couple of constructions, when Studio Infinity signed up to do a large-scale construction at the Golden Gate STEM Fair, I had the oct-tet lattice on my mind. And for a long time, I had wanted to exploit the connection between cubes and the oct-tet lattice. I just needed a way to connect cubes edge-to-edge.

So when I was doing the math for the styrofoam-dowel tetrahedron, I noticed that locating the holes necessary for making a regular octahedron should be easy too. Naturally, having done the theory, it’s hard to resist actually building the thing.

Recently a friend of mine was giving a (math) talk and wanted as a prop “a large tetrahedron with the vertices emphasized.” This seemed like a natural for Studio Infinity, so the assignment was accepted.

So why the interest in tensegrity here at Studio Infinity? It begins with Kenneth Snelson, the inventor of tensegrity (although perhaps not of the term) as a student of Buckminster Fuller. Ken went on to become a noted sculptor, using tensegrity in many of his works. One of those sculptures, Free Ride Home, resides at Storm King Art Center. And recently, the education department at Storm King Art Center invited me to give a workshop there about tensegrity, how to make simple models of tensegrity, and how to share ideas about tensegrity with the public visiting the Center.

OK, so now we are going to try to force a tensegrity structure to take on the shape of a truly regular icosahedron. But we don’t have to search blindly for a way; we are armed with the results of this MathStream post about how to do it.

Studio Infinity is kicking off with a group of articles that feature the concept of tensegrity. What does that mean?