Biotensegrity in Rome

Levin and Schleip are featured in Leonid Blyum's detailed report on a recent Biotensegrity meeting in Rome. His report is here, http://blyum.typepad.com/on_abr_and_beyond/2010/10/biotensegrity-meeting-in-rome.html, below are highlights:

I spent the last 5 days in Rome participating in the invitation-only event called 2^nd annual Bio-Tensegrity Group Meeting, which is a mastermind group with participants of diverse backgrounds – researchers; biomechanics scholars; bodywork practitioners – who contribute to the ongoing development of Bio-Tensegrity paradigm and study various avenues applying it in practice.

[Steve Levin] is 78 but until today maintains a remarkable energy and sharpness of mind. Usually I am rather stingy with the compliments but in his case I can only say that I wish I am able to retain such an intellectual shape when I am 78 myself :-)

Among other notables was Dr. Robert Schleip – universally regarded as the leader and one of the main driving forces behind the entire Fascia movement that became such a groundswell in the last few years. He was a key person behind 1^st and 2^nd Fascia Congresses; Fascia Research week in Ulm, Germany that I went to in March and tons of other events. Robert is quite an amazing person who manages to be equally comfortable and insightful everywhere – from a research lab to dealing with New Age ‘healers’. He is probably one of the most genuinely likeable personalities that I’ve ever come across in my life – he radiates most sincere interest to whatever the others are doing and embraces the new ideas without a hint of a prejudice. His newly found fame and importance did not get into his head at all – he is one of those rare people who manage to warm up the room and ease tensions everywhere he goes.
Dr. Danielle-Claude Martin... holds a Ph.D. in physics while being a martial arts expert at the same time. Danielle is the engine behind the BioTensegrity group who brings everyone and everyone together. A big boost of interest in BioTensegrity developed in the last 2-3 years once she has managed to design the experiential classes for teaching how to assemble biotensegrity models.

That turned out amazingly powerful – the transition from half a page-long formulas that were difficult to connect with reality to hands-on assembly of tensegrity models made understanding far more accessible and at the same time far more advanced and connectable to the modeling of musculoskeletal deformities. Regulating the stiffness, tension, attachments of the tensile elements has an amazing influence on the stability and behavior of the entire structure.

The picture above shows my early flawed attempts – an unstable and twisted construction (resembling the appearance of deformities in a quadriplegic child). The picture below – is a far better product that I eventually managed to deliver.

Of course, more advanced people are able to produce a lot more complicated models

...My presentation was titled “Using BioTensegrity framework in interpretation of multiarticular distortions in Cerebral Palsy” and I’d dare to say it was quite an eye-opener for the audience.

Links:

Levin's site, www.biotensegrity.com

ABR Blog by Leonid, http://blyum.typepad.com/