Friday, June 08, 2007

Theo Jansen walking sculptures


Theo Jansen walking sculptures. Wind driven. Very kewl.

Wired mag article.

YouTube:
video - video - video - video - video

Downloadable big QuickTime video, 135MB.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

strange.

Alex said...

Reminds me of some Lego air logic walkers that I saw.
http://home.ctlnet.com/~robotguy67/legobots/legobots.htm

You provide continuous air pressure to your design. As each limb reaches a limit a valve is actuated, which would either reverse travel, like on a conventional steam engine, or starts another piston pushing or pulling some other part of the design. Somewhere on LUGNET (LegoUserGroup) there is an air wheel.

Unfortunately Lego have discontinued some of their pneumatic range. My air reservoir is an old water bottle. luckily I grabbed a dozen pumps and pistons of both sizes before the small ones went extinct.

Anonymous said...

This Jansen guy is either a madman or a genius.

Maybe both.

Anonymous said...

pascal said: "This Jansen guy is either a madman or a genius."

What's the difference? I think he is.

Cliff Prince said...

I like these works because they're "ingenius" like DaVinci's gadgets -- how to translate circular movement to horizontal, how to fly with bird-like wings, etc.

But I don't really find them to be "art" in the sense that they're designed to be something to behold by an observer. I liked the looks of the flapping wings attached, almost as an after-thought, onto the tops of some of the sculptures, better that the spindly leg-like things walking along the beach. The legs were just a gadget, they didn't present to me a way to investigate a gifted individual creator's mind as would have a Shakespeare drama.

Of course, now I'm begging the question, "What is art?" and I won't presume to really "know" the answer. But I know it when I see it.

Anonymous said...

TTL said...
"What's the difference? I think he is."


You're starting to confuse me... ;-)

"Are you listening to me, or are you just going to stay there staring at empty space?
- Yes.
- `Yes`, WHAT?
- Stop it, you're confusing me! (Sniff!) Now my head hurts."