i went here.
i took the above video with my digital camera. the song is “Nantes” by Beirut. most of the video consists of a 45 minute giant elephant ride that Kourtney and i took. the first part of the video features a bunch of french high school students riding some prototypes for a giant marine carousel that they are planning to build.
Les Machines was created after founding artist, François Delarozière split up with Royal de Luxe, a company responsible for this shit.
more photos after the jump.
here’s the elephant after we disembarked via jetway staircase.
a prototype branch for The Heron Tree (with a bar underneath it, of course! france!) which will be a massive tree adorned with plants. visitors will be able to take a flight over the structure by flying circles over the tree in baskets carried by giant mechanized heron puppets. (!)
technical sketch for the giant elephant. Royal de Luxe did a piece called The Sultan’s Elephant. according to a Nantaise informant, Royal de Luxe - also based in Nantes - has an identical giant elephant robot puppet.
one city. two giant elephant robot puppets. yes.
this squid was amazing (see video above).
Molly got to ride this sea dragon with a bunch of french high-schoolers.
manta ray. the construction of these “machines” is breathtaking. nothing is attempting to conceal itself, and every single detail is functionally beautiful. seeing them in motion reminds me of Reuben Margolin’s kinetic wave sculptures.
two person sea turtle.
here’s the prototype for the marine carousel. Aaron’s friend Benoit (who runs a awesome resaurant here in, Rennes) told me it would ultimately be 4 stories tall, with sea creatures at the surface of the water on top (like the sea dragon) and ocean floor creatures on the bottom, with sharks and stuff in between. and since each machine robot puppet requires 2-5 people to operate it, hundreds of people will be able to ride at a time.
um.
giant hundred person machine robot marine carousel that’ll probably have a bar = i’m there.
seriously. anyone up for redez-vousing in Nantes say, deux mille douze?
Tags: elephant, france, kinetic sculpture, les machines de l'île, machines, nantes, puppets, royal de luxe