Built from “electricity tubes,” as they’re called in Holland, Theo Jansen’s sculptures don’t just move— they walk. There is no motor and, in the new models, no person involved. Powered by giant fans, or wings, Jansen has found the perfect ratio of tube lengths to construct legs that will bend and lift, in sequence, to make the creature walk in a very life-like manner along the beach. Some of the newer species can even store energy in the form of air, trapped in lemonade bottles for use when the wind is not blowing and the tide dictates a hasty retreat.

The legs are of a form which Jansen calls “the new wheel;” a reinvented shape having a different sort of movement, but based on the principles of how a wheel works: in other words, the axis around which the structure revolves remains steady and on the same plane, as the “wheel” moves.


The creatures are, of course, equipped with brains, however basic: one can sense when its feet touch water, or the dry sand farther up the beach, and will immediately reverse direction. In the event of a storm (perhaps the most threatening event to the creature’s survival), it will drive a peg into the ground, securing itself by the nose to one spot, until the storm passes.

Perhaps most interesting of all is Jansen’s attitude toward his creatures; he refers to natural selection, evolution, species (or “races”), and even their genetic code. Someday, when herds of these beasts are roaming the beaches of Holland, completely independent of Jansen, we may have to take a closer look at what defines life, and who gets to take part in the struggle for survival that was once reserved for those of us with working metabolisms!

Watch this video here