If you’ve seen a computer from the mid 2000s, you might remember an operating system called Windows XP. It was touted as one of the most stable iterations of Windows in a long time, and was generally used instead of the following version of Windows, Vista, due to said stability. Aside from the renown stability or large offices dumping Windows XP on each of their computers, the most iconic thing from the operating system is the cheery desktop background of a hill and blue sky. Dubbed “Bliss,” the background was so prevalent that people went and found the actual hill where the photo was shot, and the thing even has its own Wikipedia entry. A desktop wallpaper. So, it was only a matter of time before someone recreated it in Minecraft.

In their latest episode the PBS series Off Book turns its eye toward LEGO art — something near and dear to our hearts. They look at Sean Kenney, Alex Kobbs, and Nathan Sawaya — readers will note that Kobbs is the artist that re-created the Modern Warfare 3 trailer in stop-motion LEGO. While the bricks are familiar, some of this art is quite remarkable and even challenging. Take a minute to watch, and it will change how you look at the humble plastic toy.

About a year ago, LEGO modeler Mihai Mihu began a massive new project to portray all the levels of Hell from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy as LEGO sets. Today, Mihu’s descent into the punishments of humanity is complete, which is the perfect time to look back at all the hard work.  See all nine blocky levels of Hell, after the break.

Fans have been clamouring for Half-Life 3, or at least some information on the series, for a while now. Nothing has really changed on Valve’s end so, unsurprisingly, nothing has really changed on the fan-end either. In addition to playing Half-Life 2 in solidarity, fans also have a tendency to create Gabe Newell (or Gaben, as he is often called) art. It’s a something of a tradition. Here is a particularly majestic piece of a crowbar-weilding Gaben by Darren Geers. Expect it to accomplish precisely nothing on the Half-Life 3 front. Still, cool though. Check out the impressive time-lapse after the jump.

If you ever wanted to see what BioShock’s Big Daddy looked like in the form of an anthropomorphic potato, Ginger Troll has taken up the charge with this Big Daddy Mr. Potato Head. It even lights up, so check out more pictures after the break.

Frank Gehry is probably better known for his architectural works, which include the Guggenheim in Spain and the rippling 8 Spruce Street tower in lower Manhattan. He’s less known for his chess playing, but it apparently interested him enough to create this set for Tiffany and Co. for the bargain-basement price of $25,000.00.

Cameras are getting better and better. We’ve got cameras than can change focus after the fact, smartphone cameras that can shoot actual feature film footage, cameras that can shoot at 1 trillion fps, but what boring thing do these all have in common? They deal in pictures. Matt Richardson’s Descriptive Camera is taking the technology in a whole new direction. The Descriptive Camera “takes” pictures like a normal camera, but it doesn’t output pictures, it outputs written descriptions. How is that possible? There must be a little guy in there or something, right? Actually yes. Kind of.

If you’ve been waiting all your life to see a 6’10 papercraft Samus Aran, today is the day your dreams come true and you’ll have to find some new dreams. Flickr user IAmThatOneGuy made this awesome, tall Samus figure out of nothing but paper and glue. He used the Samus model from Metroid Prime 2, of the stellar Metroid Prime trilogy. Unfortunately, rolling this Samus into a ball would pretty much be irreparable. Head on past the break for some more pictures of this gargantuan paper Samus.

What with Easter being a very egg-centric holiday and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus coming oh so very soon, the two were destined to collide in this chocolatey parody of the original Alien film. Expect chocolate eggs and chocolate face huggers, and a reprise of a certain breakfast scene. You’ll never look at chocolate sauce the same way. See the video, after the break.

There may be some people out there who still insist that video games aren’t actually art, but they are becoming fewer and fewer. The Smithsonian, though not a “person” per se, disagrees and opened its Art Of Video Games exhibit today. The exhibit is not devoted to exploring art in video games, but rather exploring video games as their own artform. There’s a pretty wide variety of video games out there, but the Smithsonian seems devoted to touching on as many as possible, incorporating everything from Pac-Man to Doom II to Mario Galaxy. The exhibit will be featured from March 16 until September 30th before taking a 10-stop national tour. Sure video games are art, but now they’re high brow art. At least, so long as they’re in a museum instead of on a crappy TV in my filthy apartment.