Even more chestahedron

The last post about the chestahedron called "Mottled Heart" went a little bit all over the place, as I wrote it in multiple stages before the piece went to its final destination. So let's rewind and start at the beginning.

The artist Frank Chester set out on a mission to find a geometric structure with 7 equally sized faces. After many explorations he discovered the chestahedron, an object with 7 faces (four equilateral triangles, three kites) and 7 vertices. The structure does not qualify as Platonic Solid, as it has two different edge lengths and two types of faces.

As the structure bases on a tetrahedron folded open, it elegantly relates to all Platonic Solids, as well to a sphere surrounding it. According to Chester, the structure represents the geometry of our heart, please check out his talks for a more in depths explanation for this. When I followed a presentation about the genesis of this shape, my mind got blown several times, inspiring to seek some hands-on experiences with it.

In my first experiments I got the length for the top three struts wrong with only slightly satisfying results. Luckily, I found out the proper numbers, so that the latests builds give me better ideas about the qualities of this unique structure.

My 'standard' way of building tensegrities follows this simple algorithm:
1) All edges of the wireframe model become struts.
2) Each strut gets a string roughly 10% longer than the strut length.
3) The string network reflects a truncated version of the base geometry, eg the strings of my 6 strut "tetrahedron" create a truncated tetrahedron.
4) The number of struts converging in a corner determines the slicing, three edges create a triangle, four edges create a square, etc
5) Building of the tensegrity starts with a 'corner', eg connecting three struts with the strings shaping a triangle to begin building tetrahedron, cube or dodecahedron.
6) Each string connects to two more stick ends.
7) Repeat building 'corners' at the second string attachment position and continue until structure completed.

This simplified version works out fine for all Platonic Solids, it seems to fail for complex intersecting geometries like star tetrahedron. It worked well for the chestahedron, although, if you're really pedantic, the strings represent of truncated chestahedron. While geometrically interested people can perceive and identify the Platonic Solids in its representation as truncated tensegrity, the names of these geometric shapes evades a majority of people.

Our consciousness seems to resonate with geometry. The symmetry of it appeals to our perception of beauty, and it doesn't really matter whether we can put a name to a structure we experience. Architecture and engineering rely traditionally on squares, we have on overabundance of distorted cubes arounds us.

Mobile architecture utilises triangles much more, and geodesic domes offer a nice relieve of the geometrical desert which most urban landscapes offer. The chestahedron hides the numbers 1 to 7 in an elegant and surprising way. 1 object created from 2 base structures, a 4 sided tetrahedron, and 3 slices of a 5 pointed pentagram shows 7 corners and 7 faces. 6 edges shape a perfect hexagram through the centre of a sphere surrounding the chestahedron.

I played around a little bit with less symmetrical structures, but the majority of objects I build and sold showed multiple symmetries. I build some bases for spheres, there's often no clear up and down in my objects. The chestahedron breaks this mould - it commands like an obelisk to be put on its base. It invites to have something suspended from the apex.

The effect of a counterweight can be compared to someone pushing the object to the ground. As long as the counterweight doesn't move, which will happen. Without anchoring I could easily topple the structure over by moving the pendulum much out of centre, yet there was quite a lot of range of movement in a stable state possible.

With only about 80 cm height, "Mottled Heart" stands in a relatively sheltered space, surrounded by a planter box and equally high plants. 3 plastic tubes, fitting snugly over the bamboo sticks, anchor it about 10cm into the ground. Most of the time I saw it moving. I wonder how weathering will effect the stretch in the material, I anticipate a vast visual improvement. As I recycled the struts from a first experiment to paint on bamboo, the paint will wash and weather off. The strings will bleach off, the spot will get more and more sun exposure the closer summer gets.

I know how to improve the immediate visual appeal of the materials involved. While I was busking, I experimented a lot with colour, just a learn more about the fierce Australian sun than I wanted to. If something looks good outdoors over time, it works with nature and not against it. Oiling plant surfaces can provide interesting graceful ageing of material.

Instead of being the trickster, stunning by the immediate shineyness of their illusion, I let Mother nature do her part of trickery. If the "Mottled Heart" still beats a year from now, it will look quite different. Until then, I can enjoy seeing the calming movement reminding me of eternal change.

Chestahedron

I came across a very interesting geometric shape, an object with 7 openings (faces). It is composed out of 4 equilateral triangles and 3 kite-shaped openings. The kite is composed by cutting a similar sized in half and arranging the parts along their longest sides.

Mathematically speaking, it would be classified as diminished trapezoid, or as a heptahedron. You can find 7 a lot of times: Number of openings, number of crossings (vertexes), it's entire surface area is 7 times that of an equilateral triangle, there are 3 crossings with 4 trajectories, and 4 crossings with 3 trajectories.

I build it easily as tensegrity structure, with my simplest construction method. 3 of the 12 edges are shorter (with a factor of sqr(3)/2 ), which I guesstimated for the first build. The model tends towards a circular shape, the elegant elongation of Frank Chester's models gets a bit lost. I experiment with using different spins of the 4- and the 3-trajectory crossings, yet set on its triangular base, it tends to 'go bubbly'.

A larger model, with a better approximation of the strut length comes closer to the desired appearance of an elongated object when suspended from the top corner. Maybe there's a simple way of keeping it 'slim' by ways of an internally suspended structure.

 Chester demonstrates in his presentation how his chestahedron relates to 4 of the 5 Platonic Solids, embeds the Golden Ratio and how it fits into the Flower of Life.

PS: I found a document having the angles and strut length relationships. The shorter struts have a 0.53 factor in relation to the base length. The latest models use a 0.5 factor, which increased their optical appeal and structural stability. The slimness I missed once I found in the proper proportions.

I recycled 75cm bamboo struts for the largest version so far. Standing on its triangular base, the structure resembles an obelisk. A teardrop shaped former bed post top is suspended from the top three struts. At the moment, it's suspended using the same type of string used overall. I will replace it with fishing line, and adjust the length so that the centre of the object indicates the centre of the hidden hexagram.

PPS: While the teardrop/bell shaped centre piece isn't probably in the centre of hidden hexagram, it attached it already in a 1:1.61 relationship (height from ground:length to the top). As the object has three points of contact with about 30 degree from vertical I plan to use some hollow plastic tubes as support anchors for them in the ground. The relatively high mount point of the bell will topple the object if it is too far from the centre.

It's fun to play a bit with this piece - the pendulum creates interesting patterns of movement, even in a still state of the pendulum. The visual effect of white paint peeling off, combined with pink string, appears very harsh. In outdoor conditions, the original bamboo will reappear, the strings will bleach. It will grow over as well - the patch I want use is fertilised with three mouse corpses, mulch and saw dust, with heaps of mustard seeds.

The 4-strut tetrahedron in my front yard turned invisible. A ranking plant took it over, and attacked the two brugmansias next to it. I expected this plant to die back in winter, but I noticed only the comfrey and chamomile to die back. I want to prune the rosemary next to the patch where the 'Mottled Heart' will live.

Most of my outdoor creations didn't survive more than some months. The first 'garden model' still lives, more than I want to. Mold has taken hold of the repurposed broomsticks, so I need consider treatment for materials meant to sustain outdoor conditions. The fierce sun bleaches lots of colour, which is why I'm curious curious about the change in colour especially with the pink string.

The dodecahedron above the office block still twirls around on a string. The prevailing wind often nails it to the eastern wall, but a change in wind direction brings it back to a floaty space. The nylon string I use mostly stretches a little bit over time, yet it still looks sufficiently tense. I use the same string for 'Mottled Heart', which might need readjustment over time. My estimations for string length meant it's not too easy to take a cm out of the overall length.

I already fell in love with the interactivity of this object. Anchors will hopefully provide a minimalist way of preventing being blown away by the wind, or toppled over by over ambitious experimentalists. The wind can mainly attack from one side, so the movement shouldn't get out of control. With spring on the door step, plants will use the support to grow intro different spaces.

The last garden sculpture was destroyed during a party. The project gained some useful insights, yet even without the destructive effort it wasn't meant to last. Replacing the stinky compost place with a beating heart appeals to me.