Double-bill a first for Defiant Imagination 

Defiant Imagination kicked off with kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen. The Dutch artist has spent the last decade developing huge skeletal sculptures called strandbeests (below), which move in the wind and have their own “brains” and sensory perception.

Magnifying glass

Jansen demonstrated how the yellow tubing perceives whether it is filled with water or air, causing it to move away from the surf on the seashore.

The event attracted people from both Fine Arts and Engineering. The 400-seat D.B. Clarke Theatre filled so quickly that a second session was added immediately after his scheduled Jan. 23 appearance. The double-bill was the first in the Fine Arts lecture series’ four-year history.

For a video of his lecture, and information on the next two lectures in this spring’s series:finearts.concordia.ca/html/defi.htm

 

Concordia University