Inanimate Becomes Animate, a photo from Victoria, East

Photographer's Note

I happened to be at Federation Square when I saw this incredible creation. I include the following information from the website:www.fedsquare.com/events/strandbeest/. I strongly recommend that you watch the video clip to hear the artist talk about his scheme and to see how these creatures move using wind power. The artist plans to have "herds" of various "creatures" surviving at beaches without human help in a few years.They have rudimentary senors which will protect them from waves and storms. Incredible!!!

"This February Fed Square presents the Australian premiere of Strandbeest by Dutch artist Theo Jansen.

A fusion of art and engineering, Strandbeests are giant, self-propelling examples of nervous systems mostly made of stiff plastic tubes and plastic bottles.

Dutch artist Theo Jansen’s kinetic ‘artificial life’ sculptures have literally walked the earth, recently visiting Austria, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and the UK.

Fed Square’s “beest” is named Animaris Umerus and at approximately 12m long, 4m high and 2m wide – it could easily be mistaken as a prehistoric mammoth skeleton.

There will be daily demonstrations where Anumaris Umerus will come to life and fluidly move within the Square.

Joining it will be Animaris Ordis Mutantis, a smaller Strandbeest measuring 4m long, 2m high and 2m long, will be available for you to play with throughout the day.

Since 1990, Theo Jansen has devoted himself to constructing animals that can walk powered only by the wind.

What was at first a rudimentary breed has slowly evolved into increasingly complex creatures with a rotating spine, legs, stomach (plastic bottles for storing wind energy) and lengthening muscles (pistons within the plastic tubing).

Strandbeest means “beach animals” in Dutch, with the beach being the natural habitat for testing his creations."

Please see the whole creature in workshop and also a closeup of the materials used. The young lady you see is Akemi, one of the two sisters who were our hosts in Tokyo.

pajaran, Kofman, macondo, ktanska, ikeharel has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

aliabazari (10165) 2012-02-16 22:25

Hi ...
The image is very beautiful with excellent contrast. A good composition. Congratulations my friend

pajaran (36906) 2012-02-16 23:21

Pozdrav.
Vrlo interesantan i dobar tekst sa datim podacima o konstrukciji ...
Nauka je umesala prste svuda pa i u umetnosti, gde je tu pocetak a gde kraj ...
Svojim lepim fotografijama i dobrim radom, prikazali ste nam mehanicko cudoviste i trg sa lepom arhitekturom.
Sve najbolje sa lepim vremenom za vikend.
Kod na sibirska zima i sneg, ne popustaju.
Srecno.
Paja.

emka (59010) 2012-02-16 23:30

Hi Klaudio,

Such fusion of art and engineering are very imnteresting. Fantastic constructio n. Does it really moves with wind? Great fun for visitors.

Warm regrads

Malgo

Afsanehbagheri (3206) 2012-02-16 23:32

سلام دوست من

نمای جالب از عکس شما

تبریک و بهترین ها

macondo (17997) 2012-02-17 4:26

Hi Klaudio.
Extraordinary. What more can one say. Magnificently sharp photos too. Actually, one of the WS shots is just as good as this, perhaps better. In both you have captured the scene with an excellent exposure of the light on both the contraption itself and the tower of the building on the right - I can't remember what it is. Great note to explain this. We have to rely on our imaginations to form a mental picture of the beasts moving on the beach in the breeze.
Regards,
Andrew

batalay (32930) 2012-02-17 5:49

Hello Klaudio,

I was captivated watching the the video at the link you sent. In embedding the link it in a simple html code, "The Strandbeest", I am making it "active," and easily accessible to other viewers.

Theo Jansen is extraordinarily imaginative inventor/scientist/artist in the best sense of the expression. In the most unromantic of definitions, "Life" is defined as "self-replicating molecular systems." Of course, in order to self-replicate, it also has to adapt to its surroundings, and most likely it has to develop mobility — abilities that his contraptions appear to do (seen in animals but plants). They do not have to be organic (carbon-based) in structure. And certainly, his contraptions are not.

The field of Robotics was invented, as far as we can tell, by Leonardo. Examples are seen in the contraptions, formerly called "Leonardo's spring-driven cart" and "Leonardo's knight." I wrote about this in "Leonardo's Universe." (National Geographic Books, 2009).

I have a good friend, an exceptionally good mathematician named Steve Lipscomb, who unifies cutting edge mathematics and structural engineering. In a paper called "The Generalization of Sierpinski’s Triangle That Lives in 4-space," he replicated the 3-dimensional analogue of the 4-dimensional Sierpinski Triangle. As a problem in Fractals, he built pyramidal structures (with equilateral triangles for sides) that are closely packed, creating larger figures that possess astonishing structural integrity. I intend to send your photograph, replete with the link, to Steve. Incidentally, his website appears at Steve Lipscomb. This would be a very good area for Jansen and Lipscomb to collaborate.

Thank you very much for bringing Theo Jansen's work to my attention with a very good photograph and note.

Have a good weekend, and warm regards,

Bulent

GFSSD-1 (3134) 2012-02-19 13:24

Thanks for this extraordinary sharing..
r yuksel

ktanska (21637) 2012-02-23 10:49

Hi Klaudio,
Those beasts are creatures of a genius. And they suit well to be presented on the ultramodern site of Federation Square.
Yourshot is well framed and sidelight brings out those details well.
Kari

milad_abazari (1648) 2012-03-08 7:50