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Giant Wind-Powered Robots Roam YouTube and Real World
VIDEO: Kinetic sculpture's rising star.
Wind-powered, art-engineering marvel.
If I told you to go watch a video about Theo Jansen, star of the web's kinetic sculpture world, I'd understand if you hesitated. Conceptual art on YouTube, after all, doesn't sound like much fun. But once you see Jansen's giant, insect-like creatures, you might change your mind.
Cross a sailboat with a skeletal robot from outer space, and you might get something close to what he makes. The Dutch engineer-artist designs and builds giant wind-powered, beach-dwelling beasts. Clips of Jansen's work litter the Internet, and several are collected in this video medley:
If there is a continuum between art and technology, kinetic sculptures lie somewhere along it. They have been around since at least the early 20th century, but until recently, most of us could only experience them in galleries. Times have changed. Some video clips accurately relay the scale and movement of a kinetic sculpture, and YouTube alone now hosts nearly 2,000 videos of moving sculptures.
Jansen isn't short of a digital or analog following. There's TED talk, BMW commercial, Wired profile and blogging fans. Perhaps it's the scale of the artist's vision -- he is working to create "new life," herds of sculptures that could live independently on the beach. Jansen mimics evolution to refine his creations, using computer simulations and real-life races to select the fittest designs.
If you love Theo Jansen, you might love other videos from more obscure artists. Many of them were filmed at Burning Man, an eccentric and influential art festival held every summer in the Nevada desert. Check out this rugged walking machine stomping through last summer's festival -- the mechanical crash accompanying each step is especially sci-fi. Arachnophobics might want to skip the Mondo Spider but the rest of us can watch it drag race what looks like a giant solar-powered tricycle. Kinetic sculptures need not be ambulatory -- take this elaborate collection of baubles. But for sheer awe, it's tough to beat Jansen's animals, walking soon to a waterfront near you.
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snert
3 years ago
Interesting stuff
There is the potential for wave action power generation within the design of these contraptions.