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Richard Buckminster Fuller (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) is an American architect, author, inventor, designer, futurist. He is known for his many writings and coining terms like "Spaceship Earth". His most famous architectural design is the geodesic dome. His solution provides housing for every person who is on board Spaceship Earth. Because of his famous design, the geodesic sphere on which it was based is often called the Bucky Ball.
He is not a scientist nor an artist per se. He did teach at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale. However, to me, this highly creative person is an icon for old new media. His designs are not just about the object that is designed. While designing the objects he is also using them as a medium to communicate something else, usually a bigger idea.
An adept at developing designs and systems that carried his many ideas for the future of the planet. By designing the house based on the geodesic sphere he did not only design a house he also provided an idea that provides a solution not only to the housing problem but to the scale at which housing is needed in the future. It really is a symbol of building in the future.
The Geodesic Dome
Another example is the Dymaxion Car (Dymaxion is a portmanteau of the words dynamic, maximum, and tension). The car is not just designed with a focus on the goal of car, but on the idea of the ground-taxiing phase of planes as cars might one day lift off.
It is these grander ideas and his thinking that make Buckminster Fuller a suitable icon for anything really.
References
Fuller, R. Buckminster. Operating manual for spaceship earth. Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, 2008.
Fuller, R. Buckminster. Ideas and integrities: A spontaneous autobiographical disclosure. Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, 2009.
Krausse, Joachim, and Claude Lichtenstein. "Your Private Sky, R. Buckminster Fuller." Nexus Network Journal 2, 2000.
Extra
Dymaxion Car
Montreal Biosphère