Theo Jansen started making full size working flying saucers in the 1980s that understandably brought Orson Welles/HG Wells-esq hysteria to the town of Delft in Holland.

Strandbeest is his latest series of ‘new nature’ formed over the last fourteen years. Skeletons of very basic materials (bottles and yellow tubes) are used to produce beautiful and unusual walking animals, powered by the wind.

The Strandbeest themselves live in a real world environment where they successfully avoid water, survive wind, and walk over obstacles. Watching them leaves the same haunting impression as the Antony Gormley beach sculptures, an unnerving sensory recognition of the closely familiar, yet unfamiliar.

It seems odd that a Dutch artist’s sculptures manage to achieve such holly grails that Sony, Honda, Toshiba and other high profile bots still struggle with, and this interesting video on Ted.com provides some clues.

Strandbeest’s simple ‘behaviour parts’ produce actions we see as intelligent (e.g. avoiding water, storms) without any complex definable central brain. The combination behavior of all the smaller ‘intelligent’ parts gives the overall first impression of these creatures being very much alive.

These re-usable ‘behaviour parts’ (nose, legs, water detector) if they prove successful in helping the animal survive in its environment are passed down to each new generation of Strandbeest, with more behaviour parts (time/power storage bottles etc) being added in layers to aid or inhibit other behavior.

These Youtube clips show CGI animations of the 'walking' behavior.

Clip 1
Clip 2

Theo Jansen’s approach is Darwinist, with himself as the ‘Watchmaker’ guiding each step.

Stranbeest living characteristics appear to be formed through simple subsumption architecture, Rodney Brooks’ approach to intelligent bots.

So as Sony, Honda and others struggle on with their massive budgets, hi-tech sensory motors and inflexible stance, Theo has re-invented the wheel in a very practical and artistic way.

It would be interesting to know how these creatures are designed, and what accelerated evolution would do to their shape and forms in a virtual environment.

As it is, we are happy for Theo and his ‘new nature’ race of Strandbeest to evolve, at their own slow pace, situated in their own environment, where Theo hopes herds of Strandbeest can live out their own lives.