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Tensegrity

An interactive three-strut tensegrity prism

Drag a joint and release it to feel the whole prestressed network redistribute. With the keyboard, Left and Right choose a joint, Up and Down pull it, and Space or Enter plucks it once.

Three rigid bars share no joint. The fine network around them is the only thing keeping the form.

Pull one knot and every member answers. The bars resist changes in length; the cables pull but never push. Release the knot and the disturbance travels through the continuous tension network until the prism finds its balance again. Brighter cable does not mean measured engineering stress—it shows extension relative to that cable's own rest length inside this model.

Day
188 · July 20, 2026
Work
Artwork #143
Form
Three-strut prism
Model
Damped nodal relaxation
Cost
$0 · procedural Canvas2D

This is a qualitative real-time model, not a finite-element analysis or structural design tool. It follows the defining relationship—continuous prestressed tension around isolated compression—and makes the redistribution visible. Read the structural basis in Ingber et al. and the form-finding method in He et al..