I was lucky to be on the East Coast for Theo Janssen’s first American exhibition of his amazing Standbeests at the Peabody Essex Museum. The Beests were as majestic as I thought they would be and the exhibit itself was wonderfully informative and inspiring.

I’v always been impressed by the Beest’s self-locomotion and their ability to store and release energy. I didn’t know that they are also slowly evolving to sense their environmental conditions, store memories and even rudimentary AI.

Check out the cool hands on demo of the “Wind Stomach” energy storage system:

In addition to the full sized Beests the exhibit also includes extensive background on their evolution, their mechanics and Jansen’s visionary philosophy of their creation.

I’ve been swooning over his dream machines for years and it was incredible to finally see them in person and even get a chance to take one for a walk:

This is just the first stop on a four city tour of the USA. They will be installed at the Exploratorium in SF May-Sept of 2016.

Here’s more of my photos from the exhibit: