
Sebastian Campion of Guerilla Innovation interviews Dutch Artist, Theo Jansen for Artificial. Theo has been creating wind -powered animals made of plastic tubes for the last 15 years that move with the wind and transform into seemingly organic creatures:
“You have been developing the beach animals for about 15 years. How has the project evolved over the years?
The first beach animal I created didn’t have very strong joints. It couldn’t even walk or stand, but one night I had a vision about the principle of its feet. So, based on the simple PCV tubes that I still use, I built a computer model and tried to calculate the best way to create a walking movement. This process went on for some months, day and night before I found the right proportion between the lengths of the tubes. The philosophical ideas were not really there from the beginning, but they have grown more complete with the years. It’s not important just to make things, but also to reflect about them.
Did real animals or organisms inspire you?
I didn’t try to imitate animals. I just wanted to make something new. Afterwards, it turned out that real animals already used the same principle so when people look at the beach animals they often recognize the movement of an animal. But it wasn’t my intention. “
Read the rest of the interview here.
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