Theo Jansen makes bizarre kinetic sculptures that look like mechanical beasts. Aesthetically, there’s something about them that’s reminiscent of U-Ram Choe‘s cyber creatures but instead of shiny metals they’re composed of plastic tubes that use the wind as their sustenance and fuel. They’re called Strandbeests and Jansen has been creating them since the 1990s. The latest incarnation of these skeletal forms is the Animaris Gubernare which has sails, a couple of wheels and lots of little insect-like legs to help it shift along the sandy beach.Most of the creatures use air pumps and compressed wind to move them along, mixing art and engineering. “The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds,” says Jansen. Some of the creatures have stomachs that store air pressure, which then powers the machine when there’s no wind. Eventually these creatures are put on the beaches in herds and left to live their own lives, whatever those might be.You can find a selection of these strange, autonomous creatures online, a few of which we’ve listed below:Animaris GubernareSiamesisAnimaris UmerusOrdis
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