"Making new forms of life..."

Tonight kicks off The Defiant Imagination Lecture Series, organised by Concordia University Design and Computation Arts in Montréal, and lucky locals will get the chance to hear and see more about Theo Jansen's super-cool strandbeests.

Lecture: Theo Jansen - Strandbeest
When: Wednesday, Jan. 23, 6:00 p.m.
Where: D.B. Clarke Theatre, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd., W., Montréal

Admission is free.



Artist and kinetic sculptor, Theo Jansen has been called a modern-day Da Vinci. Trained in Science at the University of Delft in the Netherlands, Jansen creates large-scale kinetic sculptures that are a fusion of art and engineering. Jansen’s interest in technology and the process of biological evolution have led to his development of his own creatures.

His animals (“Strandbeests”, or” beach animals”, as he calls them) are enormous skeletal, complex mobile structures made out of plastic pvc tubes that use computer programs to calculate their movements. Powered by the wind, these creatures, which have evolved through several generations, walk, flap, roll, and discern obstacles. Eventually, Jansen hopes to ‘release’ his animals in herds where they can live out their own lives.

Strandbeest website

Theo Jansen's TED 2007 Lecture: The art of creating creatures