Theo Jansen.Born March 14, 1948, in The Hague, Netherlands.
When you see this mans extraordinary Strandbeests,the first thing that actually comes to mind is `what in the world is that?and how does he do it?`
Well,for this Clint Eastwood looking kinetic sculptor,it is just a simple everyday task.One look at Theo Jansens work and you would definitely have a rather peculiar feeling that these sculptures have been taken out of a wild dream or WONDERLAND.
To make artificial creatures which move with the help of nature is truly amazing.This defines the term `thinking beyond` because this is exactly what Theo Jansen has done.
He is an engineer,therefore he has a detailed understanding towards the effect on wind velocity and the calculation different pressure levels present as the wind moves through his strandbeests.His fascination towards the further developtment of the species of the strandbeests has been in his interest since the 90`s.
"When the weather was beautiful I thought it was a waste of time to sit in front of the computer" - Theo Jansen.(have to agree with him,unfortunately,i just go out to play basketball not make giant nature moving sculptures)
Of course many people have now started making their own kinetic sculptures through tutorials and such.Perhaps this is the vision of Theo Jansen,to plant the seeds of interest in the community so that the Strandbeests will spread throughout the world.
WHAT IF THEO JANSEN RULES THE WORLD WITH DESTRUCTIVE STRANDBEESTS??.....nahh.
"The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds."-theo jansen
yes..yes it does.wait..technically,it really does.our brain is seperated into two parts.the art part and the mathematical part.The point here being,there is a wall in between these two entities but if you overcome it,endless possibilities await.
Theo was a man of Science.His development of interest in this subject flourished during his high school years but he found it rather queer when he was pursuing science in University.He disliked the exams that came one after the other and the office work he had to do so he bagan to paint until 1979.He then created a UFO which required knowledge on science to calculate the forces and an artistic mind.
Theo Jansen has been working on kinetic sculptures for more than 15 years now and each year his progress on making the perfect Strandbeest gets better everytime even though his sculptures sometimes faced major joint defects.
There is a valuable lesson here and that is the mind of man is never limited to the capabilities that you believe you are capable of doing and this man here Theo Jansen has proven just that.
END!