Dr Levin is the mind and man behind biotensegrity . This new(ish) model of the biodynamic architecture of living organisms asserts that we are not built like towers, with continuous compression forces holding us together. Nor are we made of dividable parts like machines with bones as levers and muscles as pulleys.
Biotensegrity looks to tensegrity, as the structural means of all living organism. Our shape and movement is dependent on the balanced yet constantly changing forces of tension pulling in against compression pushing out, on all scales. We are never parts put together but are whole, living, breathing beings, grown from a single fertilized cell. Biotensegrity is changing the way we work with, feel and think about the body and opening the door to new research and innovations.
As the story goes, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Stephen Levin, had his eureka moment in 1975. Grappling with the shortcomings of the conventional western view of the body brought Dr Levin on many trips to the Smithsonian Museum looking to the bones of dinosaurs for clues. Sitting outside the museum on one such trip, Dr. Levin, saw the solid, towering Washington Monument. A memory of Kenneth Snelson’s Needle Tower at the nearby Hirshhorn Museum brought the insight that brought us a new model of dynamic, living anatomy. Like the Needle Tower, living organisms are formed and move through dynamically balanced forces of discontinuous compression floating in a continuous omnidirectional web of tension on many scales.
After decades of looking for weaknesses in this model, continued research and dialogues with colleagues in North America, Europe and beyond Dr Levin continues to research, discuss and share the biotensegrity paradigm. This model of the tensegrity architecture of living organisms is validated by Ingber and heralded by many others including Guimberteau, van der Wal, Oschman, Myers and many more.
Want to learn more about biotensegrity? Listen to Brooke Thomas’ interview with Dr. Levin on Liberated Body Podcast
I hope you you can make it.
Warmly,
Chris
Stephen Levin,MD, in Vancouver at the UNA Lecture Series:
6-8pm, Friday, November 18, 2016
Multipurpose Room
Wesbrook Community Centre, UBC
3335 Webber Ln, Vancouver
(604) 822-4227
This is a free event. No Registration Required
