Theo Jansen

This guy blows my mind with the creations that he makes. All of his important work is kinetic sculpting and it all works on making what he calls "strand beests". These things aren't made to look like anything specific but the mechanics that goes behind them is remarkable. basically, they use the power of the wind pushing them along and the manner in which the joints are placed to create a continuous movement over land without the use of wheels. The end product is basically a giant walking pile of sticks.

Theo Jansen, 2010 

Now, they are all simply modifications of one another so I'm not going to go into detail about each and every one of them. However, I will talk about Theo as both an artist and an engineer. Theo is both because of the complexity of his creations as well as the beauty of his contraptions. In an interview, Theo claims that engineering and art are one in the same. He says that the only place that we differentiate between the two would be in our minds.

Theo Jansen, 2010 

Some of his creations are completely wind powered and harness the wind using these complicated and also kinetic sails on the top of them. Now, for each of them, the sail structure is different and that is where I think he gets a chance to express himself artistically through his machines. 

Theo Jansen, 2010

When I first saw these things moving around as if they were actually alive, I felt a little bit of fear in that they looked like giant spiders and glided over the ground in a both elegant and awkward way. It is hard to describe in words so i'm going to post a link to his video and website ar the end of this blog. actually, right now: http://www.strandbeest.com/