[Isamu]

It’s a fun puzzle. The main thing is to only connect the ends of the rods to cables and not to another rod.

This means the rods are under compression only and the cables carry all the tension. That’s the basic idea.

Additionally they tend to avoid the rods even touching, so that it gives more of an illusion of floating elements.

[zcw100]

For something like a rubber band the challenge is that it will tend to pull itself apart before you get the final band attached. For cables that don't stretch the challenge will be it will be a gigantic tangled mess until you tension it. I have no idea how Snelson managed to construct the larger sculptures without killing himself.