(OT) - Strandbeest is interesting
frankrblow
Posts: 2,052
in The Commons
The various 'Strandbeest' designs by Theo Jansen are very interesting wind powered machines.
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Comments
incredible constructs.
Looks great.
he is creating this since 1990
very impressing
"Srrandbeest" means Beachbeast
Seen them occasionally for a number of years. I am in two minds about them.
On one hand, intellectually I delight in the complexity of the mechanism, the shape, and the fact it works at all... On the other hand, as an engineer, I almost resent all the materials, resources and inginuity that has been expended on the machine because it's totally and utterly pointless. Does nothing, means nothing and simply litters the place.
As I said, I'm torn between the two incompatible feelings about these machines.
I didn't come across Jansen's beautiful creations until earlier today. What a fantastic and creative application of physics!
How do things resolve if you don't think of it as engineering but instead think of it as kinetic art?
-- Walt Sterdan
Doesn't work. I'm an engineer to my bones (with 'making' being in the family as far back as we can find records - as far back as the 1640's 3 of my distant ancestors were carpenters, others have been blacksmiths, miners, wheelwrights, joiners, shipwrights and thatchers). And, my main reaction to 'Fine Artists' like Tracy Emin & her ilk when they spout [their self serving claptrap], is to grab my war axe to make some modifications to them.
I guess there's people somewhere who look at a marble statue and bemoan the waste of time and energy and wonder why the artist just didn't make a simple, functional pillar.
That said, you did say, "On one hand, intellectually I delight in the complexity of the mechanism, the shape, and the fact it works at all."
Once you'e delighted in the complexity of the mechanism, instead of bemoaning the "waste of time and energy" you should take the delight, reach down into those centuries of engineering DNA and ask yourself, "now what can I do with that, how can I turn that mchine into something useful?"
-- Walt