Geometric Snow

February 24, 2012 4:57 PM

Man Walks All Day to Create Spectacular Snow Patterns
posted by signal (22 comments total)

Wow. Just... wow. I'm assuming he's using a GPS of some kind to pull that off?
posted by Decimask at 4:59 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Pretty amazing. I especially like how if you zoom in tight, you can really spot the yellow highlights in the middle bits.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:04 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Wow. Sleeveless, no less.
posted by jabberjaw at 5:04 PM on February 24

I love this, so beautiful. I want to see a trans-continental collaboration between him and Jim Denevan.
posted by june made him a gemini at 5:08 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

I'm convinced these are of extraterrestrial origin.
posted by thorny at 5:12 PM on February 24 [3 favorites]

Decimask: GPS isn't precise enough, for one thing.

It's almost certainly done the way crop circles are: euclidean geometry with a rope acting as a compass and straightedge.
posted by phrontist at 5:14 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

I was hoping the headline would be followed by: "...Had No Idea He Was Doing It At The Time."
posted by ShutterBun at 5:19 PM on February 24 [3 favorites]

Something similar here too. Another example of people spending their time more beautifully than I do.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:24 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

Wow, check out the flikr set in that link I just posted. Where do people come up with these ideas?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:28 PM on February 24

But what can these mysterious shapes mean?
posted by stinkycheese at 5:34 PM on February 24

Where do people come up with these ideas?

Well, these people do seem to spend a lot of time trapped in the snow. I imagine they have a lot of time to... think about things. Probably the next pattern will be:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
etc.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:43 PM on February 24

These are way cooler than I imagined they would be.

I can imagine this guy after it snows, "Yay!"

Then if it snows while he's doing this, "Damn!"
posted by cjorgensen at 5:43 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

That's a massive koch, especially when you consider how cold it is.

/lowered tone
posted by pmcp at 5:48 PM on February 24 [3 favorites]

Neat. Artists gotta make art.
posted by R. Mutt at 6:25 PM on February 24

Why can't he just make snow angels like the rest of us?
posted by storybored at 9:39 PM on February 24

I wish all women and men who have the luxury of free time would use it to express themselves. I will not judge the beauty of these pieces, but I will defend to my death the right - or even the necessity - of using one's free time to do stuff like this. We are humans, not cogs.
posted by kozad at 9:44 PM on February 24

'A Man'... a likely story... we all know aliens love snow as much as corn.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:53 AM on February 25

Reminds me of this photo I saw on Reddit yesterday. Here's the movie version.
posted by Toekneesan at 7:48 AM on February 25

Snow Spirals Two
posted by Toekneesan at 7:50 AM on February 25

Does anyone know where to find photos in process? How do you do it with just one person?

Because even just sending students out to do a little tiny bit of art like that would be a really neat project in a geometry class. And we've got lots of snow.

Those patterns are much more spectacular than I expected them to be.
posted by leahwrenn at 10:21 AM on February 25

And her my dad and his friends though trampling the F word onto the snowy lawn ofWest Point was so great!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 6:49 AM on February 26

How do you do it with just one person?

My best guess is that you would have to use some kind of stake that would go into the ground and a piece of rope. Then you've got yourself a rudimentary compass, with two sticks I guess you've got a straight edge.

But... I've no idea how he would have made the ellipses in the second one, they don't seem to have central points marked at all - but perhaps that's an illusion of the scale of these things.

The way the first one curves up onto the hill suggests that maybe it's done simply by counting paces - but I really don't think I'd be able walk in such a straight line - maybe it's easier to do so in snow shoes with a visible trail? Then it would be like programming one of those turtle things - maybe using a (NSEW) compass for angles?

Because even just sending students out to do a little tiny bit of art like that would be a really neat project in a geometry class. And we've got lots of snow.

Do it! I want to see pictures.
posted by pmcp at 7:34 AM on February 26 [1 favorite]