Visited STRP 2011 last Saturday evening and was quite disappointed by the expo and rather bland music concerts: uninspiring techno DJs and an expo focused on the quite humble history of Dutch media and technology art. Quite a change compared to the exiting international STRP 2010 programme. However, in the expo some video’s were shown of Theo Jansen’s Strandbeesten (“Beach beasts”) kinetic art pieces. These mixtures between Tinguely, Panamarenko, robots, plumbing and prehistoric life forms still remain fascinating and one of a kind:

Visited  Theo’s Strandbeest.com web site afterwards to view some of these works in detail. And immediately bought his book “De Grote Fantast” (“The Great Pretender”) in his web shop to get more acquainted with his work.

Although I am not sure if the Strandbeesten fit the moniker “media art” (kinetic art seems more appropriate), this work still stands out in an otherwise quite bland STRP edition.

• Strandbeest
• STRP 2011