Huge, lumbering creatures patrol the beaches of Holland powered only by wind. Each generation sees them evolve into larger, more capable, impressive animals. Few people would look at common electrical conduit and see sculpture, even fewer would see the building blocks of life. This is the art and science of Theo Jansen.
Theo started with a simple walking leg assembled from discarded plastic tubing. He then used genetic algorithms to continuously refine his creations - the joints became more efficient, the gait became longer, the first generation animals emerged. The creatures are still evolving and now use pneumatics (consisting of the same materials!) to demonstrate increasingly complex behavior. One "beest" even walks around the beach and forms sand dunes!
His work is incredible and can be viewed at Strandbeest.
