Amazing Kinetic Sculptures (Video)

Posted by Andrew Tingle on November 19th 2006 | 3 Responses

Theo Jansen Sculptures It takes rather a lot to impress us here at TFTS Towers but the video below drew gasps of surprise and amazement from the entire office which, loosely translated means that yours truly stared wide-eyed at the following video and said “wow” a few times, opened a beer, and then watched the video again.

Joking aside, this video needs to be seen to be believed as it has been a long time since I have been so utterly memorised by something but this genuinely totally blew me away.

The video, which is an advert from BMW, features the living kinetic sculptures designed and built by Dutch artist Theo Jansen – incidentally now entering my coolest people on Earth chart straight at number one – who develops these intricate, wind powered, curiously organic mechanical devices that literally take on a life all of their own and you can see them in action below.

Even if you think that this won’t be of any interest to you at all I would urge you to take time out to watch the video as I think you’ll find that you’re not only extremely surprised at what you see but that, in some way, it moves you in a way that is impossible to describe.

You can view the video as a stream (recommended) by clicking on the picture or you can download the video directly via the supplied link if preferred. (Tip – if streaming, double click on the video once it starts playing to switch to full screen).

[etv]

You can view some other videos of Theo’s amazing sculptures via this link.

I would be interested to know what you think of the video and of Theo’s sculptures so please do feel free to leave a comment – you do not have to register to comment. I look forward to your thoughts.

Looking for more? See Robotics or scroll down for carefully selected related items that may also be of interest to you.

Amazing Kinetic Sculptures (Video)

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“Amazing Kinetic Sculptures (Video)”

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Response by Wormbrain | November 20th, 2006 at 3:49 am

Wow!

His creations remind me of the virtual kinetic machines you can create with “soda constructor”

http://www.sodaplay.com/

I recommend the “soda zoo”. You can spend hours playing with these things.
Response by Ortherion | October 28th, 2007 at 10:56 am

I just saw the video [much longer though] o CNN so I got curious. And now I’m just searching the web for more . It’s fantastic! The man’s a real genius. [So that's how I got to your site... nice I'll remember this one...]
Response by Andrew Tingle | October 29th, 2007 at 1:14 pm

Hi Ortherion,

My sincere apologies for not replying sooner.

I agree completely, he is an absolute genius and (as a trained artist myself, I should say) it’s reassuring to see someone producing meaningful work with a message that’s so very assessable and engaging without being self-serving, pompous tat designed merely to appeal to the establishment (my BA(H) in Fine Art served to remove any idealistic notions I may have previously had concerning the art world).

I’d love to see his work in action at first hand.

Thanks for your lovely comment concerning the site as well, much appreciated.