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July 2023 updates : buckyconfluence.org
Environmental contemplations on Bucky’s birthday at Bellevue
Lim Chong Keat, 12/13 July 2023
In the context of world strive and economic inequalities, we might cite Shakespeare: “Oh what fools these mortals be”, and agonise over the idealism of Bucky’s incentive for “the world for you and me, not you or me”. Climate change has occupied much concern – yet oblivious to astrophysical mutations that may yet doom planet earth.
I may be allowed these ruminations as I turn 93, just overcoming non-viral debilations with the help of traditional herbal prescriptions, efficacious to enable me to continue work on the legacy of my friendship with Bucky, and to advance my memoirs “Confluencing with Bucky”, drafts completed for editing and the challenging selection of relevant photos yet to be limited for publication. In the process, it has become a priority to archive the extensive photographic material and my collections of original inscriptions by Bucky. This leads to the intention to establish the “Bellevue Buckyworld Trust” to which I would endow the Fuller collection – and to make plans for its conservation and future. It may here be timely to reveal that I have been designing architectural concepts for the future of the geomantic site of Bellevue on Penang Hill, a legacy which could be shared globally by those who appreciate the cosmic history of Bucky’s connection.
On July 11th and 12th this year, no confluence has been planned, also as no others have offered initiatives to organize a gathering here. From previous attendees, we had vibes from Winfred Khoo and Maryam Abdullah, who was in Makkah. Only Kev Yeow planned to come to help on the archives, and it fell to the two of us to imbibe the moods of the environment which had been laced the days before with thunderstorms and heavy downpours, reminding us about last year’s “Realism of Rain.” Although I overslept and missed the sunrise, Kev diligently recorded the views, also observing the moon and Jupiter in the predawn cloudless sky. I then complemented with later photos. As we know, our antipodal location is ahead of New England, and July 12th there would begin around noon for us. Reflecting on the absence of this
In town Kev and I spent time on the photo archives and updates for this website. As he went back to Bellevue after 7pm he was rewarded by an amazingly spectacular rainbow over our geodesic dome at sunclipse … surely a truly cosmic message for all, which will be shared in our website.
Ever faithfully, Jaime Snyder and the Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller sent out birthday remembrances with two significant links to the Bucky Archives at Stanford (https://www.buckminsterfuller.net/resources/research-at-archive.html) and a nostalgic tour of the Fuller office in Philadelphia (https://youtu.be/e3hQWDY19Gs), recorded in 1983 shortly after Bucky’s death. I surfed the latter, glad to see Jaime and Allegra looking over memorabilia, followed by further revelations by Shirley, Kiyoshi and Amy about the trophies and the chronofiles – which became a prompt for our archives here to relate to the Fuller collections at Stanford and elsewhere as to material that may not be there.
Relevantly, as I have been time travelling over the same period, I made observations to augment the video tour, firstly noting the RIBA Gold Medal for Bucky, and the Medal of Freedom which was first communicated to Bucky at our 4th Campuan meeting in Penang in February 1983. Allegra and Jaime showed the Indonesian collections of three-way weave baskets – and a “Penang lawyer” walking stick acquired by Bucky, an item made from the endemic palm, Licuala acutifida from Penang. I noted with interest that according to Kiyoshi, Bucky was a keen photographer and his collection numbered some 11,000 images!
There was also a painting by Arie Smit given to Bucky. More interestingly but not mentioned were the colourful naive Peasant paintings from Penestanan hanging on the walls, which had caught Bucky’s eyes, and acquired when he was with us in Bali. These have since been donated to the Centre for Spirituality & Sustainability at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where the Fuller Dome is located. Coincidentally Kev Yeow had visited there in August 2022 and made photos of the 14 paintings (the one by I Wayan Pugur illustrated above) which recall memories of Campuan and our Balinese artist friends – and “Canangsari”, the bamboo tensegrity dome dedicated to Anne, as in the buckyconfluence logo. The events leading to the dome will be fully recounted in my memoirs about the early meetings convened by Bucky, myself and Austin Coates in 1976 and in 1977 (when we celebrated Bucky’s birthday at the dome).
In viewing the 1983 office tour, I recalled the special gathering about the same time that October, hosted by Porter McKeever at his Pelham home attended by musician and artist friends (including Loh Siew Tuan and Prawat) … and Allegra, Jaime, Alexandra, Ben Eli, Shirley & Bill, Kiyoshi, Amy, Karen – and also Shoji and Tsuneko.
[As a closing note, I would mention and as attached below the nice message that Jaime has contributed, adding to the other two by Shirley Sharkey and Thomas Zung, for “Confluencing with Bucky”, the memoirs yet to be published]
Message for “Confluencing with Bucky” from Jamie Snyder
Bucky in Asia: I am very happy that Lim Chong Keat is publishing a memoir, which will explore, among many aspects of his own work, his longtime friendship with my grandfather Buckminster Fuller. It was of great fortune that Bucky intersected with Lim Chong Keat from 1971 as part of his ongoing circumnavigation of the planet. It was only two years later, that as a young man of 18, I had the opportunity to travel around the world with Bucky on his unceasing travel schedule to universities all over North America, Europe, and Asia. That particular trip took us to meet numerous architects throughout Asia: Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Bali, and India— where I was privileged to sit in on Bucky’s personal meeting with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
As it turned out, I was fortunate to travel with Bucky to Bali a second time. The first trip was where I fell in love with Bali – and came to realise Bucky already had. In 1977 I returned to Bali to participate in the preparation of the second Campuan Conference organised by Chong Keat and Bucky. The longer trip gave me the opportunity to arrive in Bali ahead of Bucky, and have some time to get to know Ubud and Penestanan just a little bit. I was primarily there to assist Bucky, as I had been doing on his travels; still in this case I had the chance to explore and revel in this remarkable place. As it happened I arrived early enough, so I could meet up with then young filmmaker Karen Goodman – who was invited to document the event. Karen, went on to produce the American Masters PBS television special: Buckminster Fuller: “Thinking Out Loud”. I think fondly of the Campuan Conference and its significant contribution in bringing together visionary thinkers to contemplate biggest picture of the changing landscape of Life on Earth, and the challenges she faces – only much more severe at this moment in time. Bucky’s intersection with Chong Keat spawned numerous architectural endeavours and auxiliary projects, and was an important contribution to Bucky’s research into the evolution of humanity on Spaceship Earth. Along with stimulating big thoughts about the possibility of a sustainable and regenerative human engagement with the natural world, Chong Keat was a key figure in bringing Bucky’s “Design Science Revolution” to a new generation of designers and planners
Bucky with attendees of the Campuan 4 meeting at Bellevue in February 1983, when he received news of the Presidential of Freedom, on his last visit to Penang.
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
July 2022
The Realism of Rain
12/13 July 2022
This year we did not intend to hold formal meetings at Bellevue, but in the spirit of the Campuan legacy, asked Maryam Abdullah and Kev Yeow (and his wife Evon) to invite friends to meet informally. A few former attendees inquired if they could join if there were special events organised, but were candidly advised otherwise. Most welcomed was Ramli Ibrahim who turned up with artist Kishore and gardener/photographer Rabby – and eminent journalist Cyril Pereira. Maryam invited her teacher friend Helena Osman – and the legally distinguished Mohamad Ariff Yusof and his microbiologist wife Hakimah.
From Singapore, Ali Ibrahim and Jona Pang sent their apologies; Quek Joo Hock had planned to turn up with his friend Ken Chin, but was himself held back by covid. [“Man proposes, viruses dispose” – a reminder of the sensibility of sparsity as against overcrowding …and commercial exploitation.]
For the occasion, our office and hotel staff were to provide essential services, with Indran mounting a full display of Bucky memorabilia and photos, also with Azim recording the events, all to be noted for appreciation.
On the 12th, at the sunsight moment, the sky was clouded when Ramli appeared, transformed – radiantly nubile to hold sway with his inspired Odissi terpsichorean evocation at the geodesic dome – earlier divining his preference for rain – and indeed, without the sun being sighted, the clouds later obliged by intermittent drizzles – and more over the two days. With the Balinese umbuls fluttering over the panoramic terrace and the dome, we might have been reminded that they are symbolic of Naga and the source of water – symbolic indeed to appreciate rainfall even during monsoon periods, yet with shortages still in water supply in many areas due to poor management, over-consumption and waste. In the context of Penang Hill, where PBA the historic water authority and environmental conservator, deserving perennial appreciation, the Buckian inspiration would remind that so much could be achieved for water security and sharing – if humans would be truly sensible. During the dance by Ramli, the drizzle had abated, but we were to experience much rainfall over the two days, with the sun only sighed briefly on the 13th. The weather moods varied from clear to misty when clouds swirled around Bellevue, on other days below obscuring the city below.
As it rained and rained, the thought occurred: in wonderment about plant and analogously human life, and the eternal saga of deluge or deprivation – and about what is enough to be shared, in “the world for you and me, not you or me”. From Kishore I was to learn that in Tamil: the word for rain is malee, and water tani (as is more commonly known).
Another stray thought: wondering if current generations in Malaysia know about the context and novel by Han Suyin*: “And the Rain my Drink”? Then relatedly, more recently meeting Gary Lit who has published “If the Sky were to Fall”….
Cosmically, on the 13th, the Fuller Estate mailed news of the publication of “The Sense of Significance: the Friendship of Christopher Morley and Buckminster Fuller” written by Louise Morley Cochrane. This brought back my memories of Louise who I had invited to the Campuan Meeting at Emmanuel College in 1995; also of our trip together to the historic Brown (of Glugor, Penang) family home at Longformacus in Berwickshire, where she fell and broke her arm, and had to be rushed to Edinburgh Hospital! Sadly, she passed away in 2012. Her birthday was on the same date as mine, but earlier in 1918.
Significantly, Brian Wong and Jon Su were able to attend, both to be concerned with the future of Bellevue and its Fuller heritage. Brian and others attending were able to savour more intimately the Bellevue ambience and the Buckian legacy from images displayed – and from a preview video of “Remembering Fuller” which the ArtScience Museum in Singapore recorded with me, following their Buckminster Fuller exhibition called “Radical Curiosity”. Brian confided with a preview proof copy of his seminal book “The Tao of Alibaba”, soon to be published, enviably reminding about my tardiness in producing my memoirs, “Confluencing with Bucky,” as yet not too far from final drafts, despite distractions, including the taxonomic recognition of Alpinia buckiana.
On the 13th, Maryam led and recorded the informal and extempore exchanges held at the Campuan Lounge, which was attended later by Shannon Lee and Audrey Kwan from Perak, young articulate friends of Ramli. Cyril further contributed his account of the wide-ranging expressions of personal, local and national concerns – at the place where Bucky’s aura may still linger. The attendees also had a botanical tour of the Ginger Garden & Aviary of Bellevue, and buggy rides around the summit environment of Penang Hill. As an unplanned diversion, some were cajoled into doing garden weeding, to dirty their hands while discovering interesting ground plants in the exercise.
Although the July gathering was to be informal in the Campuan spirit of privacy (with honorics and undue publicity avoided) Sutra Foundation has sent out their Facebook account – as Ramli’s contribution was indeed pivotal and memorable, as before. We decided not to include it under this website. Hopefully viewers may understand the discretion preferred as against over-publicity – to allow a more personal appreciation of the private event and of Bucky, in the Bellevue Campuan context.
Maryam and Cyril have made their accounts of the gathering, which could be circulated to attendees with collated photos to be shared.
Postscript: while we look forward to sunsight daily, some may have seen their last sunclipse. Thomas Zung has just informed that his great friend Robert Curl (born in 1933) died on the 3rd of July. Curl with Richard Smalley and Harry Kroto won the Nobel Prize in 1996 for the discovery of the nanomaterial: Buckminsterfullerene. The name was proposed by Kroto, who had earlier studied Architecture and knew about Fuller’s geodesic domes which carbon 60 resembled. In late 1995, I did invite Kroto (who was at the University of Sussex) to our Campuan meeting at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but he was unable to come. I seem to recall that we had already heard of the recognition of the carbon 60 fullerene since 1985.
Yet another obituary followed in July: in Oxford, Colin Bridger, my Manchester University classmate passed away. He and his wife Ann, also a classmate, were with me in July 1983 visiting Bucky in London, when we went together, also with Shirley Sharkey, to the RIBA. Latest: as further sad news and a coupled funeral, Ann has died on 1sr August.
“Remembering Fuller“
In Singapore, the ArtScience Museum honoured Bucky by tne exhibition “Radical Curiosity – in the Orbit of Buckminster Fuller” from January 22nd ending on July 10th. The Museum invited me to record an interview about my friendship with Bucky in th context of Bali, Singapore and Penang. The recording has now been released on Youtube, and accessible by the link: Remembering Fuller with Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat
Lim Chong Keat, July 2022
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
July 2021
A year after the launching of our website, we observed the antipodal pre-birthday of Bucky at Bellevue to share the updates. Sunsight due at 7.20am was obscured by the rain and cloudy weather, perhaps reflecting the worldwide murkiness awaiting light. Gatherings were not proposed to allow time for meditative contemplation, while clamour abounds proposing solutions to global and local problems.
The prospect from Bellevue slowly unfolds without sunlight , drawing attention to the plants and flora appreciating the weather whatever. We may focus on the terminal inflorescence of the Alpinia species rescued from the wild and flourishing in the grounds – reminding that it is a species that has been incorrectly identified that has to be renamed, overdue as the intent has been delayed over the past years. I plan to publish soon in the revival of the journal Folia malaysiana and to name it *Alpinia buckiana, C.K.Lim, ined. – also recalling my botanical exchanges over the years with Bucky at Bellevue and at Suriana (where other new species are conserved) and where we have made geodesic shade houses – which Bucky called “grown domes”!
*As a taxonomic note for those interested, the species was studied in the field and collected from two locations, in Perak and Perlis, and had been erroneously called Catimbium speciosum, a name now considered to be a synonym of the “Shell Ginger” Alpinia zerumbet, thus now requiring a new name. The author will explain its distinction from another Malaysian species, Alpinia nobilis Ridl. and also from the true Alpinia malaccensis (Burman f.) Roscoe of Ambon and Seram, another name that has been dubiously used for other species found elsewhere in Indonesia and India. Such are the storms in the teacup for botanists!
As the weather unfolds and the environment enlightens with glimmers of sun, fully appearing as ascendent as we rotate…glorious scenically from 9am, encouraging my botanical taxonomy with Hamid our Temiar barefoot botanist to make type specimens and photograph the floral characters needed to confirm the new species, celebrating its conservation at Bellevue.
Over the last year, the concepts and plans for Bellevue as the Buckyworld Trust have been in progress – soon to be made known to supporters as and when its special contribution to the locational and global heritage is appreciated.
To those encouraging my memoirs “Confluencing with Bucky”, the news is that final drafts are at hand for editing and image selections towards publication.
LCK, 12 July 2021.
I met Allegra for the first time in mid-April 1979 in Boston, when we went with Bucky to Neva’s house in Cambridge where there was a grand piano. I recall cajoling Allegra to dance, which she said she would – but only if some one (me?, not Bucky or Neva) would play appropriate music on the piano. For the challenge, and by chance I was carrying the music score, I bravely began sight-reading one of the Satie “Gnossiennes” – and we were rewarded by Allegra extemporising in dance. Memorable!
While the world is being afflicted by viral and other diseases – and pandemics, not only by the mutating coronavirus (with geodesic morphology), the saga of life and death evolves in the context of over-population, over-consumption, inequality and exploitation. Commercialised silver bullets may or may not help, especially not totally proven, whereas the need for comprehensive and effective treatment and alleviation of all lethal diseases and terminal factors remain needed as priority, together other sensible optimum isolative precautions, best observed by community groups, strategising afresh their future regimen for survival beyond myths of “normality”.
In Penang, some who knew Bucky have died from other causes: my old classmate Goh Hock Lye, my elder sister Siew Hwa – and just at 10.26pm, 13 July at the hospital my driver Noh Muhamad, who had been with me in so many botanical expeditions.
Bucky would have alluded to prospects for the future of mankind in the context of “Humans in Universe” and cosmic and geo-astral destiny – leading us to think about species diversity in the survival of the …blessed. Beyond the vanity of societal progress, inexorably we should know that
“the ultimate cause of death is life”.
Lck, 14 July 2021.
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
July 2020
Early light and sunsight at Bellevue on Sunday 12 July was auspiciously awesome, blessing the intended launch of our website dedicated to Bucky upon his 125th birthday. A small group of invited friends were present to appreciate the panoramic setting and the invocation dance “Dawning: Resurrection”, a pas de deux inspiredly improvised and performed by the perennial dance maestro Ramli Ibrahim and Wei Jun (to music by Lou Harrison and Henry Cowell).
Selected Images of the occasion are presented to share the Bellevue celebration at sunsight, Malaysian time, the website launch being intended at noon to herald in 12 July* antipodally.
[*rescheduled later as buckyconfluence.org for editorial reasons]
Copyright Note: Images from the Buckyworld Collection *bwc series” may not be reproduced without expressed consent
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