Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Friday, September 14, 2007

The Strandbeest


Kinetic sculpture. What an interesting idea. Sculptures that move of their own accord. If you click on the title of this post, you'll be directed to a page that has video links to some demos of this artist's works, as well as to his own web site, etc.

Directory:Theo Jansen:StrandBeest Kinetic Sculptor

From PESWiki


For the past fifteen years, Theo Jansen has been creating/evolving "beach animals", immense multi-legged walking critters designed to roam the Dutch coastline, feeding on gusts of wind. They are made from commonly available tools like plastic tubing, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, hose, tape, and all sorts of other stuff.

Over the years, successive generations of his creatures have evolved into increasingly complex animals that walk by flapping wings in response to the wind, discerning obstacles in their path through feelers and even hammering themselves into the sand on sensing an approaching storm.

His animals have legs, muscles (pneumatic pistons within the plastic tubing), stomachs (plastic bottles for storing air), and nerves (collections of on/off values that work pretty much like logic gates). [1] (http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/01/66356)

Eventualy he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives

4 comments:

Patrick Parker said...

Those cideos sure are strange and fascinating!

Patrick Parker said...

oops, videos!

Rick Matz said...

Your Dojo blog is very interesting. Others may find it here:

http://mokurendojo.blogspot.com/

... or at the link I've added to the right.

Patrick Parker said...

Wow! Thanks for the linklove. I'm glad you enjoyed my blog. Keep on coming and let me know your opinion on some of the posts. It always helps me to have others keep me on track when I start to go off on a tangent ;-)