11 August 2024
It looks like a skeletal sailing ship and in a way it is. Except that it walks. Like a giant bug.
Strandbeests are created by Dutch physicist turned artist, Theo Jansen, who has worked on them since 1990. He named them strandbeest which literally means “beach animal” in Dutch. They are native to the Netherlands.
Strandbeests are powered only by wind. Some newer “species” can use the wind to store compressed air in onboard PET bottles — a wind stomach for the animal — which is later used for power.
Every year Jansen experiments in summer and designs new ones in winter in a constantly evolving process. Though the beests have existed for more than 30 years they became known only after he posted videos on YouTube about a decade ago. Since then the beests have been on tour. They came to the U.S. in 2014-2016.
And yet they remain mostly unknown, especially to people like me who live far from the beach. I learned about them last week in this 11-minute video that tells their story.
Visit Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest website for more information. His Frequently Asked Questions are especially useful.
p.s. In case you’re curious, two animations show how the legs move.
Movement of a single leg. Notice that one bar is fixed and the smallest bar rotates.
Movement of 6 legs:
The green circle shows the rotating axle that powers the legs.
Thanks for sharing. Brought back memories of seeing smaller Strandbeests at Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston about a decade ago. Their animation seems magical, even as the movement is visible.
Amazing! Thanks for posting this. Imagine walking down a beach and seeing that approach if you knew nothing about it!