--- product_id: 218536642 title: "Theo Jansen: The Great Pretender" price: "€ 183.01" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 7 url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/218536642-theo-jansen-the-great-pretender store_origin: HR region: Croatia --- # Unique kinetic art philosophy Innovative bio-mechanical design Wind-powered beach creatures Theo Jansen: The Great Pretender **Price:** € 183.01 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🌊 Walk into the future of art and evolution with Theo Jansen’s kinetic marvels! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Theo Jansen: The Great Pretender - **How much does it cost?** € 183.01 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/218536642-theo-jansen-the-great-pretender) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Collector’s Gem:** Own a well-preserved used copy of a cult favorite ranked top in Sculpture Appreciation. - • **Evolution in Motion:** Explore Theo Jansen’s groundbreaking kinetic sculptures that mimic life through wind-powered movement. - • **Philosophy Meets Art:** Dive into a thought-provoking blend of creativity, science, and existential questions about identity and evolution. - • **Cult Status with FOMO:** Join the exclusive community of readers inspired by Jansen’s visionary strandbeasts and their future beach invasions. - • **Inspiration for Innovators:** Perfect for creative professionals seeking fresh ideas in bio-mechanics and design thinking. ## Overview Theo Jansen: The Great Pretender is a used book in good condition that chronicles the artist’s journey creating wind-powered, plastic-tubing beach animals. Blending philosophy, art, and engineering, it challenges readers to rethink life and creativity through innovative kinetic sculptures. Highly rated and a niche bestseller, this book is a must-have for art lovers and forward-thinking professionals. ## Description In The Great Pretender , kinetic artist Theo Jansen shows that the concept of ‘I’ is merely a tool in our evolution. We need this tool to be selfish. There can be no selfishness without the I-fantasy. Since 1990, Theo Jansen has been engaged in creating new forms of life: beach animals made from yellow plastic tubing. Skeletons made from these tubes are able to walk, deriving their nutrition from the wind. They evolved over many generations, becoming increasingly adept at surviving storms and water from the sea. Theo Jansen’s ultimate wish is to release herds of these animals on the shore. In reenacting Genesis, so to speak, he hopes to become wiser in his dealings with the existing nature by encountering problems the ‘creator’ had to face. The Great Pretender is a account of Jansen’s experiences as God. Review: I love this book - Theo Jansen has a good sense of humor and a very likable writing style. This book is a down to Earth and very enjoyable mix of the story, philosophy, and details behind his kinetic sculptures. Review: Theo makes us think - I was hoping for something that would be more like an instruction manual on how to make some of Theo Jansen's terrific stuff. I love the book, and recommend it, but it raises more questions than answers. The questions for me are of two types. Type 1 question: Might there be a non-biological (and non-computer) path to creating life? I don't think we're even close to being able to ask this question, or for anyone to have even thought of it. Yet Theo Jansen did. What might someday become a scientific question, Jansen has prematurely raised it as an aesthetic question. This puts him in league with Leonardo and Jules Verne. Maybe aesthetic/backyard-inventing stuff question--there is a lot of Mythbuster and Rube Goldberg here. Type 2 question: How can I steal as many ideas from him as possible? And where in the U.S. can I get that terrific cheap thin PVC??? (I used to be able to get it). I've never before seen a photo of a shop-jig that I couldn't figure out. I can't figure out most of the one's in the book. Still there's a lot of information, and the videos on the DVD are terrific. I admit my type 2 questions aren't reasonable, but I still want to know more. I won't be satisfied until my students are making walking widgets that are chasing dogs, teachers and their friends around the school yard. Buy this book and someday a strandbeast will be happily stomping a beach near you. ## Features - Used Book in Good Condition ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #5,036,074 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2,043 in Sculpture Appreciation #6,214 in Individual Artist Monographs | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 15 Reviews | ## Images ![Theo Jansen: The Great Pretender - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31aQ1Rq2o+L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I love this book *by M***. on October 16, 2009* Theo Jansen has a good sense of humor and a very likable writing style. This book is a down to Earth and very enjoyable mix of the story, philosophy, and details behind his kinetic sculptures. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Theo makes us think *by W***. on November 6, 2011* I was hoping for something that would be more like an instruction manual on how to make some of Theo Jansen's terrific stuff. I love the book, and recommend it, but it raises more questions than answers. The questions for me are of two types. Type 1 question: Might there be a non-biological (and non-computer) path to creating life? I don't think we're even close to being able to ask this question, or for anyone to have even thought of it. Yet Theo Jansen did. What might someday become a scientific question, Jansen has prematurely raised it as an aesthetic question. This puts him in league with Leonardo and Jules Verne. Maybe aesthetic/backyard-inventing stuff question--there is a lot of Mythbuster and Rube Goldberg here. Type 2 question: How can I steal as many ideas from him as possible? And where in the U.S. can I get that terrific cheap thin PVC??? (I used to be able to get it). I've never before seen a photo of a shop-jig that I couldn't figure out. I can't figure out most of the one's in the book. Still there's a lot of information, and the videos on the DVD are terrific. I admit my type 2 questions aren't reasonable, but I still want to know more. I won't be satisfied until my students are making walking widgets that are chasing dogs, teachers and their friends around the school yard. Buy this book and someday a strandbeast will be happily stomping a beach near you. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A fine book and DVD *by A***S on January 27, 2011* I'm mostly writing this to say that yes, this book comes with a DVD, attached in a clear plastic sleeve to the inside of the back cover. The DVD contains "the" full-length beach-animal video (17min) as well as a few shorts of Jansen's other artwork, pranks, and a little more beach-animal footage. (I don't know if it's PAL or NTSC or what zone... I use Linux!) The book itself is somewhat of a raw, archetypal thing. The pages have a matte finish rather than being glossy. The color is muted, not vibrant. Jansen is, in my opinion, a very bad doodler, and there are many of his sketches scattered throughout. The color photos are good, though many of the layout elements (background colors, fonts) are crude. There are many images of the jigs he uses to actually form beach-animal components, and these are exceptionally beautiful. I won't comment on the written content, but there is a lot of it. This book is essential for anyone who is seriously curious about Jansen's beach-animals, though it falls short of demonstrating how to construct them. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hr/products/218536642-theo-jansen-the-great-pretender](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/218536642-theo-jansen-the-great-pretender) --- *Product available on Desertcart Croatia* *Store origin: HR* *Last updated: 2026-07-14*