Reinventing the wheel

In the year 1913 Marcel Duchamp created his first "Assisted Readymade", the "Bicycle Wheel". According to MoMA Duchamp told Pierre Cabanne that; "...when I put a bicycle wheel on a stool the fork down, there was no idea of a 'readymade,' or anything else. It was just a distraction. I didn't have any special reason to do it, or any intention of showing it or describing anything". MoMA's website also mentions that: "The Bicycle Wheel has also been cited as the first kinetic sculpture" (In a publication excerpt from: Three Generations of Twentieth-Century Art: The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1972, p. 48). Kinetic sculptures have since then evolved for almost a century, and in the case Theo Jansen's sculptures the notion of evolution of art is to be taken quite literally. These are best described with the aid of moving images, as in the video clip on TED. Jansen claims that; "5000 years after the invention of the wheel we have a new wheel". It all comes full circle - figuratively and literally.