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The Explain Your Avatar Thread
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Mine is the European sign for chemicals dangerous for the environment. I don't know why I chose this, I just tought it was cool I guess. 
The Bones! They Float!
It's an image of a floating compression model (AKA a tensegrity model).
These models were invented in 1948 by Kenneth Snelson. Snelson was studying under Buckminster Fuller at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. He has had a remarkable career as a sculptor. Snelson helped design the antenna mast for the new Freedom Tower in NYC.
Tensegrity is one of the structural principles Fuller covered in his 1970s book Synergetics. A great introduction to Fuller's text is Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson's "A Fuller Explanation" (available for free reading in its entirety at Google Books).
The non-linear (non-hookean) stress/strain response of a tensegrity is rather obscure -- and rather remarkable -- geek fact about structure. I made a small YouTube video about the behavior:
The name "floatingbones" points to thinking that our musculoskeletal system can best be modeled as a tensegrity. Anyone curious should check out Graham Scarr's recently published paper A Consideration of the Elbow as a Tensegrity Structure.
It's an image of a floating compression model (AKA a tensegrity model).
These models were invented in 1948 by Kenneth Snelson. Snelson was studying under Buckminster Fuller at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. He has had a remarkable career as a sculptor. Snelson helped design the antenna mast for the new Freedom Tower in NYC.
Tensegrity is one of the structural principles Fuller covered in his 1970s book Synergetics. A great introduction to Fuller's text is Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson's "A Fuller Explanation" (available for free reading in its entirety at Google Books).
The non-linear (non-hookean) stress/strain response of a tensegrity is rather obscure -- and rather remarkable -- geek fact about structure. I made a small YouTube video about the behavior:
The name "floatingbones" points to thinking that our musculoskeletal system can best be modeled as a tensegrity. Anyone curious should check out Graham Scarr's recently published paper A Consideration of the Elbow as a Tensegrity Structure.
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I believe our near future will have us living in a world where we'll have to wear gas masks, so constantly viewing this image helps me desensitize. I have lots of gas mask-related paintings, figures, and items throughout my house. It often creeps out people, lol.