Straight from Stampy the mechanical elephant: “In the industrial warehouses of the former shipyards emblematic of the industrial and port heritage of the city, several extraordinary Machines are being built. Imagined by François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice, this totally unprecedented artistic project called “Les Machines de l’Ile” will eventually include some ten monumental mechanical structures open to the public.

These Machines will be permanent components of the urban landscape of the Ile de Nantes, in the heart of the city. Nantes Métropole decided to create a large-scale tourist and cultural project, as part of the urban redevelopment of the Ile de Nantes. The first Machines de l’Ile came to life at the beginning of summer. Since 1 July 2007, the public has been able to ride on the Great Elephant, visit the Machine Gallery, and walk along the prototype branch of the future Heron Tree. Visitors can also watch the creators at work in the Workshop from a gangway.

From sketches that call to mind the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, to the machines in operation, the entire creative process is presented in a magical site, which resembles both a laboratory and a performance”. On the next episode we’ll report the potential problems associated with engineering these creatures on an isolated island-turned-amusement park.

Father I have a confession. I did not love Gnarls Barkley’s last album. I should follow that up with the strange fact that I was crazy for their video, which was stylized by non other than Bryan Louie. It seems as though their uncanny ability to partner with visionary artists is carrying over onto their next album, which is titled ‘The Odd Couple’. Crowned one of the top 20 designers under 30 years of age by Print magazine, Siggi Eggertsson is responsible for Grarls’ new cover art. Overall the work is pretty simple, but if you zoom in for a closer inspection, the level of complex layered detail makes for good lookin’. Don’t judge this album by it’s cover.

You learn something new everyday, or at least you try. Discovery is the ultimate goal for many of us, and if it happens on a daily basis, well you can’t really ask for more. Today was the first time I set eyes on Eric White’s paintings, and ever since reading a recent interview with him, I can’t stop thinking about his work. Best compared to the likes of Salvador Dali, his paintings are heavily influenced by alternate realities, including the dream state and metaphysics.

Rather than regurgitate the interview in it’s entirety, I thought I’d focus on his art and leave the rest up to your interpretation. Surely one could argue that there are 1000′s of Eric White’s out there, as his style is anything but revolutionary. Furthermore, he’s not the first person whose paintings have focused on a warped sense of time, space, science and pop culture. Even so, you don’t have to be the first person to do something, to be recognized as the best to ever do it. The first guy to climb Mount Everest was great, but he may have lost four toes on the way down. In any case, I can’t remember the last time I looked at a painting and got it stuck in my head all day long. While breathtakingly beautiful, White’s work is also frighteningly disturbing. A great find, on the first day this site can be viewed by the general population.

If you’re in the NYC area, be sure to check out his two new paintings at Sloan Fine Art’s inaugural exhibition.

Back in May 2006 we discovered Olafur Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist whose Umschreibung (Rewriting) was attracting the masses to an otherwise dreary courtyard in Munich. Eliasson has a modest resume, which includes Eye See You (commissioned for Louis Vuitton), The Weather Project and Your Black Horizon. Eliasson’s mastery of the space-light medium and strict attention to environmental detail have made his installations breathtaking experiences for audiences and critics alike.

This summer, Olafur Eliasson will install a series of waterfalls in New York City’s East River. The four illuminated waterfalls will range from 90 to 120 feet in height and be supported by scaffolding to give the appearance of a freestanding column of water. Two of the four locations are near Governors Island and the Brooklyn Bridge, which are already popular destinations for tourists. Estimates for this massive project indicate that it could cost taxpayers $11 million. This may seem like a rather steep price for aquatic art, but if it’s anything like Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s ‘The Gates’, a $1.5 million Central Park installation that generated $254 million, it’ll be worth every penny.

The NYC Waterfalls will be on display from mid-July to mid-October, and will be illuminated after sunset.

Some people refer to Canada as the Great White North, while others call us America’s hat. In any case, the frigid Canadian landscape has served as an inspiration to artists ranging from Lawren Harris to Colwyn Griffith. Enter Gordon Halloran who goes a step further than recreating snowy mountain tops, as he uses sheets of ice to create unbelievable paintings and installations. His canvasses are massive glacial sheets, whose delicate and temperature sensitive nature attract both crowds and accolades.

Gordon grew fond of ice as a child. He would eagerly create hockey rinks in his backyard only to be disappointed when people would begin to skate on them and ruin the glistening smooth surface. Years later as an adult, he visualized entire rinks awash with planes color, and a zamboni as an etching tool. His works serve as abstract public art installations, and create a larger sense of purpose for arenas and parks throughtout Canada.

Given a Canadian Art’s Council grant, Gordon first worked with the City of Vancouver to paint a small community rink. He went on to paint the ice at venues such as Olympic Plaza in Calgary, and Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. Gordon’s latest project is a 95 foot long wall of ice (his largest installation to date) that will be on display in Chicago’s Millenium Park. His museum of modern ice will remain on display until mother nature welcomes the warm temperatures of Spring.

Oftentimes special designs have a tendency to take us back to a place in our life we had long forgot, and stored between the hippocampus and the amygdala in a dusty trunk filled with knick knacks. The winning entry for the polish pavilion at the 2010 world expo in Shanghai brought us back to our elementary school days, where we spent countless hours meticulously creating snow flakes with nothing but paper and scissors. Designed by architects Wojciech Kakowski, Marcin Mostafa and Natalia Paszkowska is a boxy structure draped with an intricate skin, which resembles those same paper cut-outs.

The cut-outs will allow for columns of natural light to enter the interior of the facility, and provide viewing windows to the surrounding landscape and expo sites. In the evening, the facility will appear as a negative of itself thanks to multi-colored light seeping through the pattern.

A slew of artists including Daniel Danger, Ruben Rude, Jeff McMillan, Misha, Angry Woebots, Travis Lampe, Brandon Bird, Patrick Gannon, Sarah Coleman and more are currently paying tribute to the legendary Stan Lee. If you’ve never heard of Stan Lee, welcome to what the rest of the world has been talking about for over 40 years. Stan’s the man who created every single superhero that ever mattered in the Marvel universe. This Los Angeles based exhibition is currently being held at Gallery 1988 and Golden Apple Comics, who are displaying variations on Lee’s classic creations.

Funny as it may seem, not all the artists were die-hard comic book fans when they answered the call to pay homage to Mr. Marvel. Some even admitted to doing research to determine the subject of their piece. In total, the exhibit offers up the work of 100 artists, a chance to meet Mr Lee in person on opening night and even purchase your very own piece of historical comic art. Just make sure to bring your adamantium AmEx to pay for your purchase. All proceeds are being directed to The Hero Initiative, a non-profit organization that helps comic book artists and writers in hard times. See the complete gallery here.