The Strandbeest

A fusion of art and engineering


Strandbeest

Since 1990, Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been creating strandbeesten (Dutch for "beach animals", singular strandbeest), which are moving kinetic structures, sometimes wind-propelled, that resemble walking animals, described by Jansen as artificial life. All of his models are based on a system of triangles and connecting links which convert the rotation of an axle into a stepping motion of six or more legs. This allows the strandbeesten to travel over sand much more efficiently than if traveling on wheels. What was at first a rudimentary "breed" has evolved slowly, with the help of evolutionary computation techniques, into a generation of kinetic sculptures that to some degree can react to their environment.
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