2023-06-05 (V. van der Wijk)

Tensegrity designs are very fascinating: structures with rods and wires where rods do not touch other rods. They show a delicate equilibrium, if you would cut just 1 of the wires the complete structure will collapse. I did some tests with a simple tensegrity structure, a beam supported by just 3 wires which are perfectly vertical, to investigate how the balance and the stability can be influenced.

After the experiments I made a new design of the floating beam: a nicely curved steel bar ending with a straight diagonal line. The floating beam is attached with 2 vertical wires below and 1 vertical wire on top.

Welding of the rod for attachment of the 2 wires below.

This is the complete first prototype of the new sculpture which I named 'Freedom'. Also the stand I designed with nicely curved shapes. The sculpture stands stable since the center of mass is exactly in the middle of the stand. The next step is to make the sculpture of polished stainless steel, its final state.