Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests are wind-propelled kinetic sculptures constructed from PVC (polyvinyl chloride) tubes and canvas sails. Bolstered by a background in physics, he first sketched out the project for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant as a way to deposit sand and raise dunes to combat rising sea levels in the Netherlands. Since they were first realized in 1990, the creations have undergone numerous design tweaks in response to environmental factors. Lumbering or skipping along the beach, the beasts borrow equally from the shapes of animal skeletons and machines such as windmills.