Art

A short documentary on Theo Jansen and his animal creations

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Dutch artist and engineer Theo Jansen introduced us to a new form of life at TED2007—nimble kinetic sculptures that he crafts out of electric tubes and fans which gather wind energy. Jansen shared his idea: that his sculptures that could live as a herd on the beach and survive on their own.

Salazar, a director’s collective in Vancouver, Canada, stumbled upon Jansen’s talk and approached the artist about making a 7-minute documentary about his work and philosophy. Their short film, produced for Red Bull Media House, is now a staff pick on Vimeo. Watch above to see stunning imagery of Jansen’s creatures splashing in the ocean, and to see Jansen in his studio, creating these animals.

Nathan Drillot writes, “We originally found [Jansen’s] work because of the TED talk that he did. We wanted to say thank you and to hopefully return the favour by sharing the project we created with him.”