The inaugural Tokyo Hotaru festival was held last weekend in, you guessed it, Tokyo. Sending lights down bodies of water is kind of a thing in Japan and isn’t unique by any means. But given that this was meant to celebrate the hotaru (fireflies), Panasonic went the extra mile this time. They took it upon themselves to float 100,000 LED orbs down the Sumida River at the start of the festival.

This disquieting installation piece by artist Revital Cohen called The Immortal is all about what’s not there. It features a number of life support machines, including a dialysis machine, a heart and lung machine, an infant incubator, a mechanical ventilator, and an intraoperative cell salvage machine. But instead of being connected to an infirm human being, they are only connected to each other. 

Ah, April 1st. The day when nothing on the Internet can be believed, even if it’s real. This year we’ve been treated to a number of April Fools’ gags, including fake ThinkGeek products begging to be made into a reality, Blizzard games targeted at a younger demographic, the return of Toonami, and so much more. We’ll keep you updated with what’s happening throughout the day, so check back often!

Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto’s preferred artistic medium is salt, and he built this fairly tall staircase made out of salt bricks not only due to his preference of medium, but to signify loss and ruin, as the staircase crumbles when faced with a simulated earthquake.

The everyday becomes exotic again in these travel agent posters by artist Caldwell Tanner. Follow the endless flow of the Internet, explore the forgotten back of your fridge, shirk actual social interaction and instead spend the day in bed playing Skyrim; These are but a few of the disturbingly-close-to-home travel agent posters that remind us we should probably be making more of an effort to go outside. See more, after the break.

Artist and author Sean Avery has come up with what is without a doubt the single greatest use for old CDs. Cutting up the dics into carefully shaped shards, he pieces them together into spectacular animal sculptures. The shmmering, textural work is decidedly lo-tech, using hot glue and wire frames, but almost certainly labor intensive. The feathers of the hummingbird above, for instance, must have taken some time to piece together. It’s delightful, astounding work, and a not-too-subtle jab at the impermanence of media. See many more pictures, after the break.

We’ve all seen light paintings, where a super long exposure makes it appear that light is being “drawn” on an image. However, Wittner Fabrice gives this technique a twist: Instead of using a light pen to create flourishing shapes, he uses a stencil that is briefly but intensely illuminated during a long exposure photograph. The results are stark, etherial images that are almost ghostly. Fabrice’s placement of some of these in the rubble of the Christchurch earthquake are especially poignant. See more pictures, after the break.

This adorably evil, blood-spattered anthropomorphic papercraft Nintendo Entertainment System was created by Alex Huret, adding to just how mind-bogglingly impressive papercraft can be. Also, adding to the collection of anthropomorphized children’s toys reproduced in paper. Head on past the break to see more pictures of the cute little guy, and download this PDF if you’d like to try your hand at making your own.

Marshall Alexander didn’t just create a papercraft Etch-a-Sketch and Viewmaster, he anthropomorphized them, making them look like characters that would be in a Disney movie. Not only are they adorable, but Alexander has provided instructions over on his blog so you can make your own. Check out more pictures after the jump.

In what is possibly the most terrifyingly accidentally destructible piece of artwork that has had an enormous amount of time put into its creation, Bulgarian artist Plamen Ignatov has created a model of the Rila Monastery using 6 million matchsticks. It only took him 16 years, so he’s probably not too concerned with the state of instant combustion 6 million matchsticks represents like most other people would be. On display at the National Archaeological Museum in Bulgaria, the piece also employs the use of wood and and gems. Check out more pictures of the insanely intricate piece after the break.