Theo Jansens’s Mechanical Pneumatic Beasts

January 17, 2008

Imagine beaches across the world populated by inorganic autonomous mindless beasts, dependant only on the earth’s wind for their mobility. No I am not talking of the army of plastic bags currently populating our city streets; I am referring to the Strandbeests, the kinetic sculptures created by artist Theo Jansen.

Jansen’s Strandbeests are constructed of light materials in order to utilize the wind for mobility. Primarily constructed of interconnected PVC tubing, these sculptures exhibit a pneumatically driven movement.

“The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds” says Jansen in the YouTube video embedded below.

He also explains, “a part of me is an engineer who wants to map the progress of mobility, another part is an artist, who want’s to sculpt the earth that surounds us and give it shape.”

That’s some pretty deep stuff and his work, which is very visual, clearly expresses his beliefs.

Posted by Sean Snyder on January 17, 2008 | Comments (0)

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