{"id":37375,"date":"2016-03-15T15:21:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T20:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=37375"},"modified":"2016-03-15T15:21:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T20:21:01","slug":"moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Katina Beniaris
\nVideo By Qingwei Vivian Chen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inside the Chicago Cultural Center\u2019s newest exhibit, the Strandbeest comes alive with its bone-yellow pipes hitting the floor as it walks toward the visitors. Dutch artist Theo Jansen, the creator of Strandbeests, describes these new life-forms as \u201cbeach creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully in 20 years, mark my words, these animals will live on beaches,\u201d Jansen said after demonstrating the moving art sculptures Feb. 7 at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St.).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cStrandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen with Photography by Lena Herzog\u201d runs through May 1 at the Cultural Center\u2019s fourth floor. Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, this exhibition is the first United States tour of the Strandbeests. The Chicago exhibit opened Feb. 5 and it gives a close, interactive look at the Strandbeests\u2019 creation process.<\/p>\n

[vimeo 159103298 w=500 h=281]<\/p>\n

Visitors can stop by the Cultural Center’s Exhibit Hall & Sidney R. Yates Gallery on the fourth floor to see the Strandbeests come to life. (Qingwei Vivian Chen\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

\u201cThe great thing about this exhibit is that [the \u2018beests\u2019] move. They\u2019re not just meant to stand as fossils,\u201d said Hayley Barron, a public relations and communications intern at the Chicago Cultural Center.<\/p>\n

Over the past 25 years, Jansen has combined art and science to guide the Strandbeests evolution. Over 40 \u201cgenerations\u201d of Strandbeests constructed with PVC pipes come in different shapes and sizes, all based on a genetic algorithm. A YouTube video<\/a> of the Strandbeest\u2019s evolution posted in 2013 has received over 1.3 million views, which helped put his creatures in the middle of a universal conversation.<\/p>\n

At the start of the evolutionary process, Jansen created 13 \u201choly numbers\u201d on an Atari home computer. He recently shared this algorithm with artists all over the world, allowing them to create their own Strandbeests.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, thousands of students in the whole world are making Strandbeests using this [DNA] code,\u201d Jansen said. \u201cAll these students think they are having a good time\u2026 But the fact is that they are used for the reproduction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Strandbeests-1\"
Theo Jansen participated in an artist talk at the Cultural Center to explain\u00a0 Strandbeests on Feb. 7. (Katina Beniaris\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The exhibit displays some of these reproduced Strandbeests, along with other beests originally created by Jansen. Visitors are most attracted to the activities displaying the creatures\u2019 unique locomotion. Hired by the Peabody Essex Museum, a group of \u201cbeest wranglers\u201d run the daily demonstrations found at the end of the exhibit.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuests must enter the exhibit through the entrance so you can learn about how [Theo Jansen\u2019s art] is made,\u201d Barron said. \u201cAlthough everyone wants to see the daily demonstrations, it\u2019s important to know how these things work. All the ideas are put together and put to life literally when the beest comes to life and walks towards you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chicago exhibit has drawn engineers, families, school groups and tourists to see the Strandbeests live in action. According to numbers provided by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Chicago exhibit drew over 10,000 visitors during its opening weekend in February.<\/p>\n

\"Strandbeests-3\"
The “Strandbeests” exhibit showcases various beests created by Jansen . (Katina Beniaris\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The department has also provided interactive public programs centered on the exhibit including a sold-out March 18 event ,\u201cUp All Night with the \u2018Beests\u2019 Family Overnight,\u201d which gives families a special sleepover experience to learn more about the Strandbeests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did background research about Theo Jansen, and I really liked the concept of creating autonomous life-forms out of organic materials,\u201d said Christian McLain, a Columbia College Chicago student who works as a beest wrangler. \u201cI find it was super-interesting to have a job that was more interactive with people and with the beests themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Strandbeest exhibit is free. For more information about the daily demonstrations schedule and exhibit hours, visit www.chicagoculturalcenter.org<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Beest wranglers prepare for the Suspendisse reanimation at the Chicago Cultural Center. (Katina Beniaris\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Katina Beniaris Video By Qingwei Vivian Chen Inside the Chicago Cultural Center\u2019s newest exhibit, the Strandbeest comes alive with its bone-yellow pipes hitting the floor as it walks toward the visitors. Dutch artist Theo Jansen, the creator of Strandbeests, describes these new life-forms as \u201cbeach creatures.\u201d \u201cHopefully in 20 years, mark my words, these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":37551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,585],"tags":[2325,61,2326,329,2324,2323],"class_list":["post-37375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-winter-2016","tag-arts-culture","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cultural-center","tag-medill","tag-strandbeests","tag-theo-jansen"],"yoast_head":"\nMoving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Katina Beniaris Video By Qingwei Vivian Chen Inside the Chicago Cultural Center\u2019s newest exhibit, the Strandbeest comes alive with its bone-yellow pipes hitting the floor as it walks toward the visitors. Dutch artist Theo Jansen, the creator of Strandbeests, describes these new life-forms as \u201cbeach creatures.\u201d \u201cHopefully in 20 years, mark my words, these […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-15T20:21:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"733\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"katinabeniaris\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"katinabeniaris\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/\",\"name\":\"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-15T20:21:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c6a47e0b952bfc863cb19e79ce22acb2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":733},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c6a47e0b952bfc863cb19e79ce22acb2\",\"name\":\"katinabeniaris\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/112c6abe261799e61e7d3738243a71c73d584f110053fd5060e095c317e58f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/112c6abe261799e61e7d3738243a71c73d584f110053fd5060e095c317e58f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"katinabeniaris\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/katinabeniaris\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Katina Beniaris Video By Qingwei Vivian Chen Inside the Chicago Cultural Center\u2019s newest exhibit, the Strandbeest comes alive with its bone-yellow pipes hitting the floor as it walks toward the visitors. Dutch artist Theo Jansen, the creator of Strandbeests, describes these new life-forms as \u201cbeach creatures.\u201d \u201cHopefully in 20 years, mark my words, these […]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2016-03-15T20:21:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":733,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"katinabeniaris","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"katinabeniaris","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/","name":"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-15T20:21:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c6a47e0b952bfc863cb19e79ce22acb2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/Featured-Image.jpg","width":1100,"height":733},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/moving-kinetic-sculptures-make-a-stop-in-chicago-during-first-major-u-s-tour\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Moving kinetic sculptures make a stop in Chicago during first major U.S. tour"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/c6a47e0b952bfc863cb19e79ce22acb2","name":"katinabeniaris","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/112c6abe261799e61e7d3738243a71c73d584f110053fd5060e095c317e58f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/112c6abe261799e61e7d3738243a71c73d584f110053fd5060e095c317e58f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"katinabeniaris"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/katinabeniaris\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}