Fuller,+Richard+Buckminster

=Fuller, Richard Buckminster=

toc Read here pertinent facts about someone whose work is critical to a proper comprehension of scale.

=Relevant Biographical Notes=

Influence on Eames and McHale
Fuller was a significant influence on Eames and McHale. Eames mounted a seven-screen installation at the 1959 Moscow World's Fair, presented in a dome designed by Buckminster Fuller. McHale collaborated with Fuller on the Design Decade diagrams and documents.

Both Eames and Fuller held the Norton Poetry Chair at Harvard: Eames lectured and Fuller was professor in residence.

Concern with Scale
Fuller created many super-scale surveys with the help of McHale and others. He deliberately sought concepts that were scale invariant. To aid him towards this goal, he deprecated gravity-based thinking and its associated terminology. For example, he avoided the use of up and down, preferring in and out. He also spoke about structures and geometries that were valid "independent of size."

Over his lifetime Fuller refined his language with a goal to making it scale invariant. As part of this effort, he affixed terms with prefix/suffix pairs that suited his needs, e.g. macro/micro, ultra/infra, in/out, min/max, con/di.

=Selections=

Selections from Fuller's work that are relevant to scale studies.

Writing Selections
"The systematic outsideness is the macrountuned: the ultratunable. The systemic insideness is the micrountuned: the infratunable. The system is the discretely tuned-in conceptuality. (Synergetics 1033.10)"

"Universe dividers... are not linear dividers, but omnidirectional Universe dividers dividing outside from inside, out from in. A mosquito has macro-micro cosmos system perceptivity at a different level from that of the whale's. Probably each observer organism's stature constitutes its spontaneous observational level of macro-micro subdividing: bigger than me; littler than me; within me; without me. (Synergetics 1023.14)"

Macro- and Micro- in Fuller's Writings
Fuller affixed many terms with macro- and micro- in order to keep his thinking scale-invariant.

Below is a table resulting from lexical analysis of a broad sample of his books and lectures.

 Table of Macro- and Micro- Lexicon
 * Word stem || Affixed term || Term as it appears in Fuller's writing ||
 * almost-true || micro || micro-almost-true ||
 * altitude || micro || microaltitude ||
 * astronomical || macro || macroastronomical ||
 * biological || micro || microbiological ||
 * celestial || macro || macrocelestial ||
 * center || micro || microcenter ||
 * constellation || micro, macro || macroconstellation, microconstellations ||
 * constituents || micro, macro || microconstituents, microconstituted ||
 * cosm || macro || macrocosm, microcosm, macrocosmic, microcosmic, microcosmicall, macrocosmically, macrocosmic-embracing, macro-microcosms, micro-macrocosms ||
 * cratered || micro || micro-cratered ||
 * deviation || micro || micro-deviation ||
 * diameter || micro || micro-diameter ||
 * differential || macro || macro-differential ||
 * divergence || macro || macrodivergence ||
 * domain || macro || macrodomain ||
 * dots || micro || microdots ||
 * energy || micro || microenergy ||
 * event || micro || microevent ||
 * evolution || micro || microevolution ||
 * exploration || micro || microexploration ||
 * exploring || macro || macro-exploring ||
 * exquisiteinware || micro || micro-exquisite-inware ||
 * generalization || macro, micro || macromicro-generalization ||
 * hence || macro || macro-hence ||
 * insideness || micro || microinsideness ||
 * interdistanced || macro || macro-interdistanced ||
 * involution || macro || macroinvolution ||
 * irrelevancies || macro || macroirrelevancies ||
 * limit || micro || microlimit ||
 * limits || macro || macrolimits ||
 * longevity || micro || microlongevity ||
 * macro/micro || micro, macro || macro-micro, micro-macro ||
 * medio || micro, macro || macro-medio-micro ||
 * nothingness || micro, macro || macro-micro-nothingness, macronothingness, micronothingness ||
 * nuclear || micro || micronuclear ||
 * organisms || micro || micro-organisms ||
 * outsideness || macro || macro-outsideness ||
 * phase || macro || macrophase, microphase ||
 * photographed || macro || macrophotographed, microphotographed ||
 * physicist || micro || microphysicist ||
 * physical || macro, micro || macrophysical, microphysical ||
 * ranges || micro || microranges ||
 * rate || macro || macrorate ||
 * remainder || macro, micro || macroremainder, microremainder ||
 * scale || macro || macroscale ||
 * scope || micro, macro || microscope, macroscoped, microscopic, microscopically ||
 * structure || micro || microstructure ||
 * systems || micro || microsystems ||
 * tetra || micro || microtetra ||
 * tetrahedron || micro || micro-tetra, micro-tetrahedra, macro-tetrahedron, micro-tetrahedron, macro-tetra-nothingness, micro-tetra-nothingness ||
 * -tude || micro, macro || macrotude, microtude ||
 * tudetude || Macro || Macrotude-microtude ||
 * twilight || macro || macro-twilight, micro-twilight ||
 * Universe || macro || macro-Universe, macro-micro-Universe-differentiating ||
 * untune || macro || macro-untune, micro-untune ||
 * waves || micro || microwaves ||
 * weight || micro || microweight ||

Comprehensive Thinking
Pattern of thought, phase 1. Thinking is frequency modulation--tuning out finite irrelevancies into two main classes: micro-macro, which leaves residual defined system as lucidly relevant. Surrounding the figure is white space representing the finite macro-irrelevancy, too large, too infrequent.

Pattern of thought, phase 2. De-finite equals finite minus outwardness and inwardness.

Pattern of thought, phase 3: Surrounding the figure is white space representing the non-conceptual finite withoutness, nonsimulteneity, nonsynchronously tuneable. Concave means concentrate; convex means diffuse.

Images from Phase I 1965 Doc3 Comprehensive Thinking by Fuller. World Design Science Decade / 1965 - 1975 Five Two Year Phases Of A World Retooling Design Proposed To The International Union Of Architects For Adoption By World Architectural Schools Phase I (1965) Document 3 Comprehensive Thinking World Resources Southern Lllinois Inventory University Carbondale, Illinois