The problems facing our world are massive. Worldwide hunger, poverty, environmental crises, corporatalism, injustice. Every activist, every concerned citizen, and every person with even a passing concern in the welfare of the world has asked themselves the question, “What is the point?” Why do we bother fighting systems that are so massive that even those people who theoretically have power (the Bill Gates, Jimmy Carters and Martin Luther Kings of the world) are hardly able to put a dent into.

The answer, as laid out in this article in the Guardian, is that there is most definitely a point, but one that goes beyond and deeper than the amount of effect that the individual can have. It is an inspiring read and one that I believe is applicable far beyond his topic of climate change to all global problems and perhaps even the problems in our personal life that seem to big for us to handle. He is much more eloquent than I so I encourage you to read the article

Link

Now you cannot tell me that a trebuchet that shoots flaming pianos is not truly a wonderful hobby for an elderly English gentleman. This man should have lived back in the days of Stempunk yore. He could have armed a Zeppelin with one of these and gone on simply smashing safaris of lost volcanic islands. If this does not count as living out your dreams no matter how crazy, then I do not know what does.

Today on YouTube, I found an amazing set of videos of kinetic art sculptures made by the Dutch artist Theo Jansen.

It is really amazing to watch his creations as they walk across the beaches of Holland. There is something delightfully eerie about them. They look like living skeletons of some crazy sort of machine and yet there is something peacful about the way that the wander along, powered only by the wind.

As one who works with technology on a regular basis, I really like his quote that the only difference between art and technology is in our minds. Why can not technology be considered beautiful and expressive the way art is. And why must art be limited to the traditional forms that it has held for the last millenia or so?

Obviously in order be really ‘art’ it needs to go beyond simply ‘looking cool.’ This is where I think Theo’s work really stands out. While he is a bit crazy (he talks about them coming alive in an interview on GoodExperience.com), there is something to them that forces us to look deeper at our own biological existence. The movement of the creatures captures a beauty in our own movements that is difficult to simply describe and that by its commonplace nature we hardly ever recognize. In this way it also pushes the boundries of
art, by (as must kinetic sculpture does) a sense of movement in non-staticness into the art. Particularly, it makes the movement itself the art form rather than the thing that does the moving.