DIY Kinetic Sculptures / Theo Jansen "Strandbeest" / Zurich, Switzerland

I recently attended a presentation and demonstration from one of my favourite living artists, Theo Jansen. I was thrilled to see him in person and was impressed with his bare bones engineering, his thoughtful creation process and his use of everyday materials (pvc tubes, cable ties..) to create such beautiful, moving creatures.

Each Strandbeest follows an organic evolution, a natural process that makes Jansen's creatures come alive elegantly and poetically. They roam the beaches in Holland and the world now. We were treated to a live demonstration of the Animarus Umerus after two consecutive presentations, the spectators gasped with delight, applauding until the end.

The best part, he signed my latest issue of MAKE magazine.

MORE ABOUT THEO JANSEN & STRANDBEEST HERE.

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT HERE.

- C

'Advanced Beauty' Video Sound Sculptures & Processing & Etc.

This summer has been filled with travel and relocation for both John & I, and living and working apart resulted in the recent absence from the blog. But, rest assured we are still very much here and looking forward to returning back to instrument making.

In the meantime, I am updating my music blog over the next weeks, you can find my latest post and future ones here. Related, I have also been looking into audio/visual projects and have two in particular that I would like to mention.

The first project is the Advanced Beauty series of videos using Processing and inspired by the condition synesthesia. This is a condition where people perceive music through colours according to the tonal qualities of music. I've always been fascinated by this phenomenon and this project is aesthetically beautiful, as it is musically entrancing. You can view the first 6 parts out of 18 here at the Color + Design Blog. (Source)

The other audio/visual project that impressed me recently was the Glastonbury 2008 Pi Installation. This project allowed people to not only interact and play sounds with motion, but it also fully utilised the body as an instrument, syncing quite brilliantly both the audio and visual elements of the participants' movements and collaborations. You have to see it to get what I mean.

Glastonbury 2008 - Pi Interactive Installation from evan on Vimeo.

It truly feels like a fully thought out and cohesive art installation that I would love to know more about and try firsthand. Detailed info about the project can be found at memo.tv. Great, great job! (Source)

- C