DIY Kinetic Sculptures / Theo Jansen "Strandbeest" / Zurich, Switzerland
I recently attended a presentation and demonstration from one of my favourite living artists, Theo Jansen. I was thrilled to see him in person and was impressed with his bare bones engineering, his thoughtful creation process and his use of everyday materials (pvc tubes, cable ties..) to create such beautiful, moving creatures.
Each Strandbeest follows an organic evolution, a natural process that makes Jansen's creatures come alive elegantly and poetically. They roam the beaches in Holland and the world now. We were treated to a live demonstration of the Animarus Umerus after two consecutive presentations, the spectators gasped with delight, applauding until the end.
The best part, he signed my latest issue of MAKE magazine.
And what does this have to do with music? Nothing BUT if you watch the Strandbeests in motion, the following video can make you appreciate the visuallly stunning DIY engineering through the beautiful musical interpretation of Emir Diril.
Comments (4)
Wow..great introduction and the video is most awesome. Glad you got to met the maker. Thanks for this..talk about art and craftsmanship coming together. The walking beasts reminded me in some shots of the first steps of a foal..but some of them got moving pretty smooth and quick.
Yeah this guy's doing crazy stuff. My friend sent me this link a few weeks ago, hearing him talk about them is really inspiring.
Amazing. Society needs innovators like him.
wonderful. love the part as it goes into the sunset. will never look at cable ties in the same way again