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LM: #299: Creative tensegrity
When I get stuck on a creative project, I grab this toy off my bookshelf.
This toy perfectly represents what I’m trying to achieve with any creative project. It’s a demonstration of a concept called tensegrity. Tensegrity is a portmanteau of “tension,” and “integrity.”
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This bridge is a tensegrity structure.
Wikipedia: Paul Guard
NASA is experimenting with tensegrity to build a robot to explore other planets.
Tensegrity structures use a combination of compressive strength and tensile strength to hold themselves together. The human body is somewhat of a tensegrity structure, with rigid bones held together by flexible muscles and tendons.
I think of creative projects as tensegrity structures. The rigid elements are the constraints of the project. These could be practical constraints such as the laws of physics, budget, or time available, or constraints of a medium or genre, such as that films are thirty frames per second or self-help books tend to be about 250 pages.
The flexible elements are the choices you make within those constraints. The same way flexible elements in a tensegrity structure pull against one another, the choices you make in creative projects have trade-offs. Like if you write a character who’s obsessive, it will feel wrong if he has a calm demeanor, unless you balance that contradiction. For example, he has a calm demeanor only when he’s on a stage and feels like he’s finally in control.
You don’t build a tensegrity structure brick-by-brick, as you might do the bookkeeping for your business. Instead, you must iterate and find the right balance between compression and tension.
Like a tensegrity structure, your creative project either stays together in a cohesive, coherent, whole – or it falls apart.
Aphorism: “Many inventors fail because they do not distinguish between planning and experimenting.” —Henry Ford
Cool: I haven’t tried a Keego water bottle but as a squeezable titanium-lined water bottle, it looks like an exciting alternative to plastic.
Best,
David
P.S. Achieving creative tensegrity is easier for a fox than a hedgehog.
