VIDEO: New Life Forms Conquer Dutch Beaches

Theo Jansen, a 60-year-old Dutch artist and kinetic sculptor, creates large sculptures which look like skeletons of animals and can walk using wind power alone of Dutch beaches.

His animated work is a combination of engineering and art, because, as he says, the walls between art and engineering exist only in our head.

This artist began working on this project 15 years ago, after writing an article on the idea and purchasing a few tubes. He wanted to focus on the project for only a year, but in a way, he became addicted to it and is still doing it today.

Life energy from wind, not food

Animals which Theo creates are new life forms, as he puts it, and they work according to the principle of artificial intelligence. They should survive on their own in a few years, get by and move without the help of men, which they still require today. They will not draw life energy from food, but from wind. Wind will move the feathers on their back, which will provide energy for their legs to move and they will move sideways, with their nose facing the wind.

The animals were created as a combination of tubes which are aligned under a certain angle.

There are 11 numbers, called the 11 sacred numbers, due to the way the animals can walk. Jansen also points out that this is a new discovery of the wheel, even better than the wheel because it is possible to move on sand, which cannot be done with a wheel without a lot of effort.

To successfully avoid all the hardships of a beach, as they tough the water, the tubes, which otherwise suck in air, resist water and run the other way. Once a storm is coming, the animal becomes fixated on the beach and tries to turn its nose towards the storm.

The new generation of animals can even storage wind in bottles, in case there is no more wind and if the tide is coming, so that they can get to the dunes, as water harms them and they drown easily.

The animal even possesses a seemingly simple brain which tells it at any moment where it is. With ones and zeros, it counts steps which tell it where the sea is, were the dunes are and were the animal itself is exactly.

Evolution they go thorugh will become perfected in the future

He calls his work with the animals symbiosis. They secure living funds for him and he prolongs their “life”, which is still impossible without humans.

The extent to which these animals have been perfected and how they go through evolution is best evident from the fact that they used to require his help every few seconds, but today, this period is extended to several minutes. He hopes that this period will become even longer in several generations.

After he finds a way for the animals to breed by themselves and defend from the world, he will have accomplished his goal. He hopes that his disciple will continue his work and perhaps even take on disciples of his own to maintain this project for generations.