Dutch artist Theo Jansen makes walking kinetic sculptures, or as he calls them strandbeesten - literally "beach animals" – named because his multi-legged creatures roam the coasts of Holland, all powered by wind. Comment on this story.
Jansen is clearly a man obsessed. He admits to sleepness nights thinking about how he can improve his creations. He even says he thinks more about the beasts then he does his own children.
His aim is to have his sculptures outlive him - to obtain immortality through them. And that ambition may yet be realised - since Jansen begin creating them, the beasts have taken on a life of their own and now others are building their own versions. Anyone can get hold of the material - the animals are made from one core material - plastic electrical cable conduit tubes which can be found in every Dutch house.
Links - for more photos and videos plus how the beasts move, visit the Strandbeest website.
Theo Jansen speaks at TEDTALKS.
Video - Jansen's creation Animaris Umerus on the beaches of Scheveningen, Netherlands:
Video - The State We're In host Jonathan Groubert with one of the beasts on a very windy beach, Kijkduin, Netherlands (filmed/edited by Diana Steenbergen):
This story was taken from the latest edition of The State We're In - Producers' Picks 2011.
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It seems alive.
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