I know that there are plenty of occasions when things are exaggerated beyond all necessity. It seems that with amount of information wealth that is available & with the number of subjects on which one needs to formulate opinion in modern days, sometimes words are coined very loosely. As someone who just is starting to understand the principles of writing, I must confess that there are occasions when adjectives are used too loosely for things that might not deserve such a mention.
But here is finally someone that I have come across after a long time, whom I can truly call a “Genius”. Now I call lot of men brilliant & for good reason too. But this man Theo Jansen is a genius of the highest order & no less. I have always rated creativity & originality as the true tests of intellect (Yes, different people can have different parameters) If those two qualities are what you are looking for then look no beyond Theo Jansen. The man creates life out of plastic & wood! He tries to emulate evolution & sometimes also tries to go one better. He uses the energy of the wind to harness the energy needed for movement of his artificial life.
He creates spectacular skeletal structures that are nothing short of magic. I saw some ancient pages that have been part of Da Vinci’s early attempts to mimic the anatomy of a bird so that he could make a flying machine. I hope Jansen is on the same course as he reminds me of the very same drawings.
Jansen’s Creation:
It is hard to be objective & look at his amazing technology that stores wind in bottle cans & uses them as energy, when the intellect of the man blinds all else with its sheer brilliance. Here is a video of his very special creation;
Hansen says that he does not want to only mimic nature but also wants to go one better. Jansen says:
“The walls between art & engineering exist only in our minds”
Indeed, how true. But only few, maybe handful in human history have been able to break that wall down to amalgamate the two fields to create spectacular visual magic. Jansen is one of those. This has been one piece that I’m proud to have had an opportunity to have written. The guy is a true inspiration.
