He is born 1948, in Scheveningen, the Netherlands and he studied physics at Delft University of Technology. While at the university, he started painting. In 1979 he made a UFO – a 4-metre flying saucer constructed from pvc pipes and filled with helium, which flew over Delft and Paris. In 1984–1986, he made a painting machine, which sprayed paint around objects and people creating white silhouettes on various backgrounds. He has written newspaper columns and books. In 1990, Theo Jansen started working on Animari, which became Strandbeest, wind-powered walking mechanisms with multiple legs, that combine art with engineering. Starting as experimental kinetic constructions – small boxes on legs, the works were gradually becoming increasingly sophisticated, eventually demonstrating
a direct response to their environment. For Jansen, these are still early days in his development of mechanisms that can improve themselves physically and in their reactions to the outside world. Ultimately, the idea is to create a structure, a mechanism that has its own life.

Jansen has exhibited worldwide and received many awards, including the Sandberg Prize, Amsterdam; Max Reneman Prize; Witteveen + Bos Techniek Prijs; the Special Jury Prize at Ars Electronica 2005; Honorary Doctorate from Concordia University, Montreal. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Jansen