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Technological Surrealism / Alec Nerds Out

Dymaxion Auto-Matic Buckminster Fuller

The Dymaxion Auto-Matic Buckminster Fuller is a tribute to R. Buckminster Fuller and the technological spirit of the 1950s in general.

It uses a statistical decomposition of Buckminster Fuller’s text, “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,” to generate and display new content that he might’ve said if he came back from the dead with a concussion. The strange compositions invented by this algorithm echo the idiosyncratic style of the man himself, using many real Fullerisms in the process.


Physically, it takes the form of a tabletop appliance, self-contained and compact. A block diagram on the rear of the unit mimics the serviceability of electronics from that era.

Technically, the device is driven by an Arduino microcontroller board connected to an SD card storing externally-generated data structures to contain the statistically decomposed text and assist in content generation. It uses the TVOUT library, with modifications to adapt to the 90°-rotated display, connected to the composite input of the television’s CRT controller board (from which the built-in tuner has been disconnected).

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One Comment

  1. DrRick says:

    Hey punk, where you going with that flower in your hair
    Hey punk where you heading with that flower in your hair

    Damn, man that’s all I can remember.
    So sorry FZ!

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