TED talk by Theo Jansen

For this weeks TED I chose a rather interesting and strange segment by Theo Jansen, labeled The art of creating creatures. The Jansen is a Dutch artists who is responsible for creating lifelike kinetic sculptures who seem to posses the ability to move and survive on their own. Using the wind to harness the energy needed to perform a feat, his sculptures are able to move freely about the beach. In order to prevent from possibly wandering into the ocean he has devised a simple but effective bottle and tube design which sucks in air continuously. If it encounters any resistance such as sucking in water the entire sculpture turns around and walks in the opposite way. This is a rather elaborate form of sculpture that he hopes will one day be full self sufficient.

He considers his art sculptures or rather "Strandbeests" to be a new form of life that will one day perform and survive on there own. I find these sculptures interesting and an outstanding piece of art, however I don't feel that I would consider them a new form of life by any measure. I view them as a primitive yet effective form of mechanical engineering. Think of them as a form of scaled down robots who have the ability to perform only the simpler tasks in order to survive. For me to be considered alive is to have a living organism within that performs some important function. This sort of "android" if you will does not currently exist but someday it might. Despite my disagreement on what to call it, I find his Creations to be most interesting and an exceptional form of art.