The Fuller Dome, Center for Spirituality and Sustainability kicked off an historic five day long gathering on Thursday, March 27th with a “Welcome Event.” Attendees from around the world and across the nation were invited to celebrate Buckminster Fuller’s legacy and discover the “history and mystery” of Bucky’s miniature-earth “Geoscope” dome that he built on the Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville campus in 1971 with his architectural partner Shoji Sadao. Folks who had traveled to gather in the dome from places such as Manila, Columbia, Canada, California and New York were welcomed into the space to reactivate some of Bucky’s most transformative concepts with five days of performances, lectures, games, analysis, model building, data visualization, dance, art and music. The five day gathering became as much an affirmation of the human spirit as it was a celebration of Bucky’s ideas and it had those who attended grappling with their role as human beings to address the challenges facing us as a species. Like Bucky, they were left asking themselves, “what a single individual could contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity."
Fuller Dome Director, Benjamin Lowder, welcomed attendees to the conference by sharing the building’s relationship to the 90th Meridian as well as the 90th Meridian’s importance to Bucky’s 1946 Dymaxion Map patent. Benjamin went on to describe the series of meaningful coincidences that allowed Bucky to build his miniature-earth translucent dome straddling the planet’s 90th Meridian decades after he had used that same meridian as the spine of his Dymaxion Map. An enormous version of the Dymaxion Map, created for the conference, covered the floor of the Fuller Dome aligning its 90th Meridian directly on top of the planet’s actual 90th Meridian. The map would serve as the stage for all of the programs as well as the game board for the playing of Bucky’s World Peace Game. For the first time ever four of Bucky’s key data visualization tools were combined together in a single setting, the Geoscope, Dymaxion Map for the World Peace Game and the World Resource Simulation Center.
Fuller Dome Board President, Connie Frey-Spurlock, stepped onto the Dymaxion Map to welcome folks into the Fuller Dome as well as the Southern Illinois University system at large. In addition to her role as board president, Connie is the Director of SIU’s Successful Communities Collaborative and she recognized Bucky’s ideas as potential tools for building resilient and sustainable communities across the region. Connie was followed by the Fuller Dome’s Manager, Tovia Black, who spoke to the meaningful impact that the Fuller Dome has had on SIUE students who have found their way into that unique space. Stuart Cowan, the Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, then walked the 90th Meridian of the Dymaxion Map as he shared BFI’s important role in the creation and planning of the 90th Day Programs. Stuart also spoke of BFI’s mission to serve as a hub connecting thinkers and doers from across the globe who are working in their own unique ways to achieve Bucky’s goal of "making the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone.”
Continuing the “Welcome Event” that kicked off the conference, Stuart Cowan brought up Glenn Page who traveled from Portland, Maine to attend the programs. Glenn runs the Collaborative for Bioregional Action (COBALT) and he rose to speak of a BFI Design Lab project that he leads to create “The Living Atlas” that will allow for bioregional visualization and scenario building. Glenn brought up one of his key collaborators in this effort who traveled to the Fuller Dome from Columbia, Juliana Bohorquez. Juliana built a geodesic dome herself in a beautiful setting on the Columbian countryside. She uses her dome as a connecting place and a sacred space to honor the land and to collaborate with folks from around the world engaged in sustainability efforts.
Stuart Cowan, BFI Executive Director, speaking at the Fuller Dome 90th Day programs “Welcome Event”
The enormous Dymaxion Map’s presence on the floor of the Fuller Dome; expressing a more accurate two dimensional picture of the world, with it’s 90th Meridian spine atop the actual 90th Meridian, laid out beneath a translucent miniature-earth that Bucky also designed to align with the 90th Meridian resulted in a fractal-like echo that untied the past with the present, the individual with the whole, as well as the microcosm with macrocosm. As Bucky said, the miniature-earth Fuller Dome straddling the 90th meridian provides "a sense of orientation of each human individual within the profound magnificence of Universe … allowing one to go inside to go outside one's self and into the center of the Earth and thence outward to the stars in seconds".
Day one of the 90th Day Programs continued with an architectural tour covering the most important region in the world for domes connected to the legacy of Buckminster Fuller. Attendees boarded the bus in the rain for a guided architectural tour beginning at the Fuller Dome that Bucky built on the SIUE campus 1971. The tour then traveled North a few miles up the Mississippi River to Wood River Illinois to drive into the Union Tank Car dome built in 1960. This 380ft wide 120ft tall geodesic dome is still in use today and is now under the ownership of Watco. The bus was met by Watco manager Kim Gardner who graciously shared a bit of the dome’s history as well as how the dome is currently being used by Watco. Next the tour crossed the Mississippi River and headed towards St Louis to visit The Climatron dome at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It is a glass geodesic domed greenhouse built in 1960 to house a variety rare tropical plant species. The tour then came back across the river into East St Louis to visit the Mary Brown Center dome. Built in 1968, this laminar style dome is the meeting site for Bucky’s Old Man River’s City proposal of a mile wide domed city for East St Louis. Famed Afro-Caribbean modern dancer and activist, Katherine Dunham had reached out to Bucky in the 1960’s for a new urban plan for East St Louis and the one mile wide domed city called Old Man River’s City was the solution Bucky provided in collaboration with James Fitzgibbon and a team of Washington University architectural students. From there the tour returned to the miniature earth Fuller Dome on the SIUE campus.
After the architectural tour, the Fuller Dome was set to host a Katherine Dunham style dance performance created by Vivian Watt and her NIA Entertainment dancers. Vivian Watt choreographed this 90th Day dance program to be performed upon the Dymaxion Map under the dome and it provided powerful resonances as she and her dancers moved across the continents occasionally reaching down to touch the land acknowledging our sacred connection to Mother Earth. The dance also honored the connection between Bucky and Ms. Dunham, as it was Katherine Dunham who had collaborated with Bucky on the Old Man River’s City concept for East St Louis. Vivian Watt trained with Ms. Dunham at the East St Louis Katherine Dunham Performing Arts Center from 1975 to 1980. Vivian was elevated to the position of “Principal Dancer” during that period and she went on to perform Dunham style dances across the country.
Vivian Watt, choreographer and Katherine Dunham Performing Arts Center Principle Dancer from 1975 to 1980
In the Beginning There Were Drums • and Bells • and More Drums • and Voices
Elam Ko Elam Bae - Elam Ko Elam Bae - Elam Ko Elam Bae - Elam Ko Elam Bae
And People • And the People Danced!
The Dunham style dance program began with a drum call and then transitioned through each member of Vivian’s company sharing their inspiring talent and unique style through powerful movement and rhythm. The energy of the program reached a crescendo with Vivian leading all those in attendance in a dance throughout the building and into the Fuller Dome Gallery to open the exhibition of Buckminster Fuller artifacts and a SIUE student project.
Vivian Watt leading attendees on a dance throughout the Fuller Dome during the first day of the 90th Day Programs
Once Vivian had led the dome’s guest into the Fuller Dome Gallery through a dance procession, the remainder of the first day of the 90th Day conference was spent viewing and learning about the exhibition of Buckminster Fuller’s artifacts in the gallery. The exhibition also featured an 8ft diameter model of the Fuller Dome built by a class of SIUE students for professor John Cabbages, construction management class. The working group of students were on hand to answer questions and would go into greater detail on their project in the symposium scheduled for the final day of the 90th Day programs.
Day 2, 3/28/25, of the 90th Day programs began with a reactivation of Buckminster Fuller’s World Resource Simulation Center concept. Peter Meisen of San Diego, California facilitated the session. Peter ran a version of Bucky’s World Resource Simulation Center idea for many years in San Diego. Peter called his version of this concept the “Sim Center.” The original version proposed by Bucky and his Director of Research and Development Thomas Turner, was to be two buildings built on the SIUE campus. Phase one of the project consisted of creating a 200’ wide domed theater in which to play the world game on a 100’ long Dymaxion Map. Phase 2 of the project would see the construction of a 400’ diameter five-eighths spherical dome with data presented on the inner surface of the dome. Although having an Illinois House of Representatives bill appropriating funds for the center’s construction in 1967, this ambitious project was not built. The miniature-earth dome originally known as the Religious Center was built on the SIUE campus in 1971 and it was with-in this building, which is now called the Fuller Dome, that Bucky’s World Resource Simulation Center idea returned to SIU.
2025 reactivation of Bucky’s World Resource Simulation Center in the Fuller Dome with Peter Meisen facilitating
Sketches from the Stanford Archive of Bucky’s World Resource Simulation Center proposal for the campus of Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.
SIUC and SIUE students collaborating and sharing their lived experiences during the Sim Center session in the Fuller Dome
The student working group and attendees interacting on the Dymaxion Map after the Sim Center session
After the morning of data driven Sim Center sessions the program moved back toward the humanities with a jazz and poetry performance led by Rabbi James Goodman, Rabbi Susan Talve and the SIUE music students jazz duo. SIUE student Belle, who is a founding member of the dome’s student group, the Fuller Center Seekers, also came to the mic to share a moving and heartfelt piece of poetry. Long time dome supporter Dr. Al Deibert and BFI team member Jalen Gildersleeve, who had traveled from Manila to attend, rose to share readings of Bucky’s own poems.
Day two of the conference ended with the first of three performances of the theatrical one man play “R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE” written by D. W. Actor Jon-Michael Rutter played the role of Buckminster Fuller and the three dome performances were directed by Kira Rutter. Attendees were left a buzz after the first play performance and a couple of audience members had said, that the play was a Broadway level production. The play was crafted by Jacobs from Fuller’s own words and the performances in the Fuller Dome were able to embody Bucky’s spirit in a truly unique way.
Day three, 3/29/25, of the Fuller Dome’s 90th Day programs opened with two sessions of Bucky’s World Peace Game. A vast majority of those who participated in the game had never played it before, despite many of them having spent decades promoting Bucky’s legacy. The World peace Game is played out on a large format version of Bucky’s Dymaxion Map. The large floor version of the map that fit into the Fuller Dome’s dimensions turned out to be roughly 24’ x 12’. At those dimensions, the map could accommodate 30 players standing on the continents to represent 100% of the global population distribution. The players were randomly assigned visors to wear that indicated what population they would be representing as they took their places on the map. India, the most populous nation in the world in 2025, had difficulty holding all of the players that needed to stand in that location. The players crowded into the region, standing right up against one another, invading each other’s personal space and making themselves noticeably uncomfortable with the extremely close proximity in which they had to stand with each other.
It is one thing to be told the information that there is overpopulation and crowding in certain regions of the world, but it is quite a different version of knowing to physically experience the sensation of not having enough space as that data is presented to you. Through physicality and tactile encounters the game gave the participants an emotional and experiential understanding of global conditions in ways that print or digital data could never do. The presentation of world resources was also done tactilely with physical objects representing global resource distribution placed in their appropriate locations across the map. After the participants spent hours working through the current global condition they were able to successfully move resources around through collaboration and they innovated in novel ways that allowed the entire global population to be well taken care of without ecological offensive or war. In the end, one student’s critique was that they were “disappointed with the game, because all that it did was show that it isn’t about resources,” which is of course what Bucky had hoped that the game would demonstrate.
It is no surprise that a game meant to elicit emotional connections to our global situation would bring forward emotional responses in the players, and many participants lingered after the game was completed and processed what they had shared with each other. Ultimately through playing the World Peace Game it became clear that our current global condition of scarcity, competition and conflict is a choice that we have made collectively. Bucky's declaration that, "for the first time in human history, it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher standard of living than any have ever known," became real for many participants after experiencing the game. Where they may have previously dismissed that kind of thinking as utopian daydreaming, the data driven modeling provided by Bucky’s game revealed that it is actually possible if we have the collective will to choose that world for ourselves or at least for our grandchildren. Upon that realization, a profound sense of personal responsibility spread through the gathering as folks processed the experience of playing the World Peace Game.
Looking up at the Fuller Dome’s miniature-earth Geoscope as the evening of day three arrived.
With the data visualization of the World Peace Game fresh in attendees minds, it was time to shift to a different kind of modeling. William Meyerhoff had come to the Fuller Dome from Los Angeles with boxes of geometric modeling materials in forms of colorful straws, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, gumdrops, paper plates and more to facilitate a Geometric Model Building session. After a brief introduction by William to the concepts that Bucky would discover and communicate through his geometric models, the children present were first to dive into the materials laid out on tables before them. Soon everyone was building and making discoveries of their own, immersed in the geometric triangulation of universal patterning that made Bucky’s inventions like the geodesic dome so durable and efficient.
Day three of the 90th Day programs closed out with a concert from Farshid Etniko. Farshid is a renowned Iranian-American entertainer and composer who seamlessly combines jazz standards with a captivating Middle Eastern twist. His musical repertoire transcends borders. Through his travels, Farshid has woven a variety of styles into a unique & familiar sound. Farshid’s performance in the Fuller Dome took beautiful advantage of the dome’s unique acoustics and the worldly mix of his sound was echoed in the globe above his head and the map below his feet.
Farshid Etniko taking the audience on a musical trip around the world in the Fuller Dome
Day four of the 90th Day programs was Sunday, 3/30/25 and the day began with a particularly moving edition of the dome’s ongoing “Soul Sunday” program. It was a crisp Spring morning and as attendees began circling up below the miniature-earth, great billowing clouds and pairs of Canadian Geese could be seen moving across the sky through the dome’s translucent triangles. Dr. Al Deibert opened the gathering with Bucky’s version of the “Lord’s Prayer.” A basket containing strips of paper with Bucky quote’s on them was passed around the circle and folks began reading them out loud to the group. Playwright D. W. Jacobs shared a version of the “Lord’s Prayer” that he had written several years earlier during a pivotal period of his life. The clouds above the dome seemed to become over-filled with emotion and they released their tears as Marjorie Walter rose to sing of the sacredness of water in time with the rhythm of a fresh Spring rain.
Soul Sunday was followed by a Prayer for the Planet that flowed into a heartfelt session of group singing led by Steph Plant. Beginning the Prayer for the Planet, Benjamin Lowder invited attendees to hold hands in a circle and asked them to move into a “heart-space” by feeling into the love they have for their most cherished friends and family. Throughout the prayer, Benjamin encouraged the group to hold that same feeling as they gradually expanded the circle until the love generated there in the heart of the miniature-earth dome traveled out along the 90th meridian and encircled the entire planet. The setting, occasion, the dome and the meridian all seemed to be tailor made for achieving this purpose.
Benjamin Lowder offering a Prayer for the Planet from the heart of the miniature earth Fuller Dome.
Steph Plant getting into her sing along session, “Earth’s Echo”
A young attendee choosing the next song for the sing along
The good Sunday vibes stayed strong with a Resonance & Tensegrity: A Sound Bath Experience in the Fuller Dome with Los Angeles based CereMoni Sounds. Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s principle of tensegrity—the balance of tension and integrity that structures all of existence—this session invites you to attune to the vibrational harmony within and around you. Bucky’s described the Dome as a space where one could go "inside to go outside oneself"—a portal for both inner and cosmic exploration. In this unique environment, the frequencies of the sound bath will interact with the Dome’s acoustics, amplifying the interplay of tension and release, structure and flow.
The cathedral of universal reality and mystery, became a medium for deep relaxation, renewal, and reconnection to the inherent balance of the universe.
Moni Vargas of CereiMoni Sounds facilitating a sound bath session in the Fuller Dome.
A soulful Sunday edition of the 90th Day programs in the Fuller Dome drew to a close with the second performance of, the one man play “R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE” written by D. W. Jacobs, acted brilliantly by Jon-Michael Rutter and directed thoughtfully by Kira Rutter. Throughout the conference attendees were commenting that the play really brought Buckminster Fuller’s ideas to life and folks in attendance felt how auspicious it was that the dome in which these performances were happening is a space that Fuller himself had designed built and spent time in. Those in attendance for these Fuller Dome performances were given the chance to experience a bit of what it would have been like to attend a lecture by Bucky in his miniature-earth Geoscope dome.
Actor Jon-Michael Rutter, embodying Bucky on the Dymaxion Map on the 90th Meridian in the Fuller Dome
The 90th Day of the year had arrived, it was the fifth and final day of the conference, Monday, 3//31/25. The 90th Day began with a symposium of diverse speakers sharing presentations on scholarship, projects, history and innovation with an audience who assembled in the Fuller Dome eager to be informed and inspired. The day started early and there was a buzz of anticipation for the programs final speaker. Jaime Snyder, Bucky’s grandson, would read an article that Buckminster Fuller wrote at the request of Stewart Brand in 1975. Stewart who was the co-founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog asked Bucky to write an article about the potential condition of the world in the year 2025 which was then 50 years into the future from 1975. We are now living in that once potential future and we are grappling with the very challenges that Bucky outlined in his 2025 essay.
Stuart Cowan, Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute opened the 90th Day Symposium in the Fuller Dome
90th Day Symposium Speakers • Opening Remarks by D. W. Jacobs & Benjamin Lowder
Stuart Cowan • BFI presentation; “Open Innovation for Planetary Thriving”
with Jalen Gildersleeve of the Buckminster Fuller Institute
SIUE Student Team • Project report on the Fuller Dome renovation & greening
Bonnie DeVarco • Dymaxion Map Evolution & Geoscope; past, present and future
Curt McNamara • Using Bucky's Comprehensive Tools
Elizabeth Donoghue • Fuller Dome Home & Bucky at SIUC presentation
Joe Clinton • Bucky’s Jitterbug “Eureka, Eureka & Eureka Again”
Vivian Watt Panel • Katherine Dunham Philosophy and Movement
Jamila Ajanaku - Educator, Dancer, Dunham Certification
Anne Walker - Educator, Principal Dancer- Cultural Director Mary Brown Center
Vivian Watt - Educator, Choreographeer, Principal Dancer KDCPA & NIA
John Geunther • Old Man River’s City, a comprehensive history
Jaime Snyder • Reading and Discussion of Bucky’s 2025 article
Architect John Geunther presenting on Bucky’s Old Man River’s City concept for East St. Louis.
Panel on Katherine Dunham getting into Ms Dunham and Bucky’s Old Man River’s City project.
Pictured above is Jaime Snyder reading Bucky's Essay on the year 2025 ... Stewart Brand, co-founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, asked Buckminster Fuller to write an essay in 1975 about the condition of our planet and humanity 50 years into the future, that future is now... 2025. To close our Fuller Dome • 90th Day Programs Symposium, Bucky's grandson, Jaime Snyder read that essay on his grandfather's predictions from 50 years ago. Jaime joined the gathering via Zoom and shared the reading which brought strong emotions out in everyone present. Most attendees sat and listened to Bucky’s words regarding the year 2025 with their eyes closed, presumably to focus and envision what the essay mean’t to humanity in this present moment that Bucky’s accurately described as the crossroads of “utopia or oblivion.”
There is more to come here on 90th Day in the form of videos, interviews, zoom recordings and Bucky’s 2025 article transcript… they’re being edited and prepared now, please return …
