Polybius: Music Made with Old Technology

As he sits at the bottom of a dry swimming pool, musician Julian Corrie is joined by an orchestra of outmoded technology in this brief new music video titled Polybius, directed by James Houston and produced by Bold Yin. In place of drums or other instruments, Houston instead used a SEGA Mega Drive, a Commodore 64, several floppy disk drives and old hard drives to create the accompaniment. The artist refers to the track as a “nostalgic farewell to forgotten friends,” and although it ends a bit abruptly, I found it to be unexpectedly lovely. You might remember a similar piece by Houston from almost five years ago when he created a killer cover of Radiohead’s “Nude” using a similar approach. Not to be outdone, PURETUNE also covered House of the Rising Sun using a wide variety of legacy computer equipment. (via The Fox is Black)

Follow the Leaders: A Corporate City in Ruins by Isaac Cordal

In one of his most ambitious artworks ever, artist Isaac Cordal (previously) spent three months constructing a corporate city in ruins for his installation Follow the Leaders. The sprawling collapsed society involves some 2,000 cement figures and decaying concrete buildings that the artist says are meant as a “metaphor for the collapse of capitalism and the side effects of progress.” You can see many more photos on his website (scroll to the bottom), or you can stop by Place du Bouffay in Nantes, France through September 1, 2013. (via Street Art Utopia)

The Happy Show by Stefan Sagmeister

Currently touring several cities in the U.S., The Happy Show by graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, blurs the boundaries between art and graphic design with a great mix of installations, imaginative typographical displays, and interactive artworks. The large exhibition is punctuated with social data gathered from Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Steven Pinker, anthropologist Donald Symons, psychologist Jonathan Haidt, as well as several prominent historians. There’s also free gum! And candy! And giant inflatable monkeys! The Happy Show is currently on view at the Chicago Cultural Center through September 23rd, 2013. I’ve been twice now, and you should go too. Images above courtesy Stefan Sagmeister.

Figurative Wood Sculptures by Willy Verginer

Artist Willy Verginer lives and works in a small town called Ortisei in South Tyrol, Italy. His figurative sculptures are carved from solid pieces of lindenwood and often painted with acrylic or accompanied by additional materials. Several of his more recent works as part of a series called Human Nature were on exhibition at Galerie Majke Hüsstege earlier this year and you can see much more of his work on his website. (via Empty Kingdom)

Minimals: Modular Toy Animals by Sebastián Burga

Minimals are a new line of modular toy models currently in development by designer Sebastián Burga. The designer has been working on the wacky looking animals since 2008 and they recently won a Silver A Design Award at the A’Design Awards. While it doesn’t look like they are currently available for purchase, you can see a lot more over on Facebook and Behance.

Surreal Drawings, Paintings and Murals by Rustam QBic

With a wildly surreal imagination, artist Rustam QBic from Kazan, Russia creates fish adorned with houses and windows, elephants sprouting giant buildings, and a goose whose feathers are made from a ocean of angry waves. Almost every one of his creations, be it on paper or on a wall is brimming with wonderful ideas and often have to be viewed up close to appreciate their full detail. He most recently completed murals for the LGZ Festival and for Art-Ovrag 2013, and you can see many more paintings, illustrations, and other work over on

A Mercedes V12 Engine Built with Hand-Forged Components of Bone, Wood, Fossils and 50 Other Materials

Here on Colossal we’ve seen an entire 1969 Mustang Coupe made from paper, and a stunning stop motion timelapse of a rebuilt Triumph Spitfire, but this new sculptural piece by artist Eric van Hove might take the cake for labor-intensive automotive art. After receiving a Cda-Projects Grant the artist headed to Morroco to create V12 Laraki, an excruciatingly detailed Mercedes V12 engine built from 53 materials that were hand-forged from 35 master craftsmen from various regions in Morocco. Nine months in the making,V12 Laraki began when van Hove dismantled a mercedes engine and then set about creating faithful reproductions of every single component, some 465 parts and 660 bolts made of casted copper. Contracting with artists around Morocco the engine was made with white cedar wood, high Atlas red cedar wood, walnut wood, lemon wood, orange wood, ebony wood of Macassar, mahogany wood, thuya wood, Moroccan beech wood, pink apricot wood, mother of pearl, yellow copper, nickel plated copper, red copper, forged iron, recycled aluminum, nickel silver, silver, tin, cow bone, goat bone, malachite of Midelt, agate, green onyx, tigers eye, Taroudant stone, sand stone, red marble of Agadir, black marble of Ouarzazate, white marble of Béni Mellal, pink granite of Tafraoute, goatskin, cowskin, lambskin, resin, cow horn, rams horn, ammonite fossils of the Paleozoic from Erfoud, Ourika clay, geometric terra cotta with vitreous enamel (zellige), green enamel of Tamgrout, paint, cotton, argan oil, cork, henna, rumex. In case you were interested.