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Theodorus Gerardus Jozef Jansen (; born 14 March 1948) is a Dutch artist. In 1990, he began building large mechanisms out of PVC that are able to move on their own and, collectively, are titled ''Strandbeest''. The kinetic sculptures appear to walk. His animated works are intended to be a fusion of
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
and engineering. He has said that "The walls between
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
and engineering exist only in our minds." He strives to equip his creations with their own
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
so they may avoid obstacles such as the sea, by changing course when detected.


Early life

Jansen was born in Scheveningen in the Netherlands. He grew up with a talent for both physics and art, and studied physics at the Delft University of Technology. Jansen left the university in 1974 without a degree. While at Delft, Jansen was involved in many projects that involved both art and technology, including a paint machine and a flying-saucer machine.


Flying saucer

In 1979 Jansen started using cheap PVC pipes to build a -wide flying saucer that was filled with helium. It was launched over Delft in 1980 on a day when the sky was hazy. Light and sound came from the saucer. Because the saucer was black against a light sky, its size was difficult to determine. The police even stated that it was 30 meters wide, and some people swore they saw a halo around it. Jansen has claimed that this project "caused a near-riot". He said that the machine was never found, and that it probably landed somewhere in Belgium. He later repeated the project over Paris.


Painting machine

Jansen's painting machine was developed in 1984–86 in Delft, and it was a somewhat larger project than his flying saucer. It consisted of a tube with a light cell situated at its end. When darkness was detected, the machine would begin to spray paint, creating painted silhouettes of people standing in front of it. This machine was also attached to a large piece of wood that was hoisted against a wall, where it would move back and forth to create 2-D images of everything in the room.


The ''strandbeest''

Since 1990, Jansen has been creating ''strandbeesten'' ( Dutch for "beach animals", singular ''strandbeest''), which are moving kinetic structures, sometimes wind-propelled, that resemble walking animals, described by Jansen as artificial life. All of his models are based on a system of triangles and connecting links which convert the rotation of an axle into a stepping motion of six or more legs. This allows the strandbeesten to travel over sand much more efficiently than if it were to travel on wheels. What was at first a rudimentary "breed" has evolved slowly, with the help of
evolutionary computation In computer science, evolutionary computation is a family of algorithms for global optimization inspired by biological evolution, and the subfield of artificial intelligence and soft computing studying these algorithms. In technical terms, they ...
techniques, into a generation of kinetic sculptures that can react to their environment to some degree. According to Jansen, he was inspired by '' The Blind Watchmaker'' by
Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...
. Jansen has said "I make skeletons that are able to walk on the wind. Over time, these skeletons have become increasingly better at surviving the elements such as storms and water and eventually I want to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives." Constructed from PVC piping, wood, fabric airfoils, and zip ties, Jansen's sculptures are constantly being improved and are designed to function in the sandy beach environment in which Jansen releases them. The sculptures are also able to store
air pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1013.25 millibars, 7 ...
in order to propel themselves in the absence of wind. Jansen's more sophisticated creations are able to detect when they have entered water and are then able to move away from it. One model is capable of anchoring itself to the earth if an approaching storm is sensed. A 2016 episode of ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'', "
The Nightmare After Krustmas "The Nightmare After Krustmas" is the tenth episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 606th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on December 11, 2016. P ...
", featured the strandbeesten and Jansen. He provided the voice for his cartoon character.


See also

*
Jansen's linkage Jansen's linkage is a planar leg mechanism designed by the kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen to generate a smooth walking motion. Jansen has used his mechanism in a variety of kinetic sculptures which are known as (Dutch for "beach beasts"). Jans ...
– leg mechanics *
Soda Constructor Soda Constructor is the Java based physics engine, central to Soda's collaborative learning environment Sodaplay.com. It was created by Ed Burton, Soda's Research and development Director, in April 2000 and won an Interactive Arts BAFTA Award in ...
– an online physics-simulation game enabling the design of virtual Jansen-like creations *
Genetic algorithm In computer science and operations research, a genetic algorithm (GA) is a metaheuristic inspired by the process of natural selection that belongs to the larger class of evolutionary algorithms (EA). Genetic algorithms are commonly used to gene ...
s – the method used in the design of the sculptures' legs


References


External links


Strandbeest.com
– web site with video and photographs of the sculptures
Strandbeestmovie.com
– documentary film about Theo Jansen by Alexander Schlichter – the web site is a workbook with videos and pictures * *
"My creations, a new form of life" (TED2007)
*

* ttp://www.artfutura.org/02/05jansen_en.html Strandbeest: Theo Jansenfro
Art Futura
2005
Theo Janssen Machine in Mathcad
on PlanetPTC {{DEFAULTSORT:Jansen, Theo 1948 births Living people Dutch sculptors Dutch male sculptors Artists from The Hague