Vortex Linkages

Kinetic Sculpture

Years ago, we found a mysterious object on the shelf of a recently deceased physics professor at an estate sale. It was 8 connected links that mathmatically moved around in the hands to create Buckminster Fuller tetrahedron-ish shapes.

The kinetic sculpture was originally designed by Paul Schatz in 1929, who's much more famous discovery was the Oloid, made in the same year. We aren't sure if there were any mass produced sculptures made after the discovery, or if it wasn't until 1975 when Flowerday Designs of England patented the design and began manufacturing an 8-segment 'Octyflex' sculpture and a 6-segment 'Hexyflex' iteration. A Flowerday Designs box from that time describes the sculpture as, "elegant geometric objects that you move and change in pleasing and surprising ways." They even managed to snag a quote from Buckminster Fuller for the back of the box, "I am extremely enthusiastic about the Octyflex."

From the now expired 1974 patent application explaining the design:

There is disclosed a manipulative toy in the form of a linkage containing an even number of at least six links, each of which links comprises a central limb with two end limbs projecting one from each end thereof in planes mutually perpendicular to one another, each end limb of each link being journalled alongside an end limb of an adjacent link so as to pivot generally coaxially therewith and enable the linkage to be successively turned inside out through a position in which it defines a planar polygon, in which position half the journalled pairs of limbs stand perpendicular to the plane of the polygon at each vertex thereof whilst the remaining journalled pairs of limbs lie in the plane of the polygon and project from the mid points of the sides of the polygon towards the centre thereof.

We noticed a trail of Octyflex and Hexyflex sculptures across the internet, but couldn't see any in current production. In an attempt to breath life back into this useless design object, we set out to see if we could make our own variation. Instead of chrome plated wire, we made our version from stainless steel and added vinyl endcaps to each internal segment so that the object rotates and flexes in a more satisfying way.

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