Acclaimed artist of moving sculpture, Theo Jansen, to lecture

Theo Jansen, a Dutch artist and kinetic sculptor, builds enormous works that resemble skeletons of animals and walk on wind power, discusses "The Battle of the Beast" on Tues., Nov. 4, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in Squires Student Center's Haymarket Theatre.

Jansen’s lecture will include a DVD presentation of his sculptures on a big-screen. The lecture is free and open to the public. It is presented by the School of Visual Arts in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies.

For the past decade, Theo Jansen has been occupied with the creation of a “new nature,” not from pollen or seed, but from plastic, yellow tubes. Jansen studied physics at the University of Delft in The Netherlands from 1968 to 1975, then left the university to become an artist. Since 1990, he has been creating skeletons made of electric conduits that are given artificial life through the use of genetic algorithms, which simulate evolution inside their code. These “animals” have evolved through several generations. Eventually, Jansen says he would like to put the animals out in herds on beaches, where they can roam endlessly.