Get off my lawn photograph!

December 3, 2007 11:43 AM

Kitchen Budapest is a collective that is aiming to render photographs on land through robotic grass cutting. The project is called Landprint.

They've modded a lawn mower with mixers in the hopes of successfully producing lawn works visible from the air. The artist rendering of what they hope for is pretty neat. The "hello" they nearly got the landmower to cut, is not. [via]. They're also doing other cool projects.

posted by cashman (10 comments total)

from the site: vegetation viewed from above has an advertising potential, as well, think of manipulating grassy yards of office blocks, or making landmarks visible on google maps.

Great. Can't wait for Central Park brought to you by Budweiser.
posted by rooftop secrets at 12:00 PM on December 3, 2007

I thought the "HELLC" was pretty neat, at least for a dot matrix style printer. If they add controllable height to those mixers I think they could pull off decent photos.
posted by waxboy at 12:00 PM on December 3, 2007

I dunno about this. "Robotic law mowers" sound like something out of a Stephen King story.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:07 PM on December 3, 2007

OK. It looks like they're treating this much like a printer head, where you must actually move the mower along an expected path in order to get the appropriate results.

What would be much cooler:

Couple the system with GPS. Let the mower figure out where it is in the field, rather than require it to be in a particular position to work correctly. Lower cutters based on the desired effect for the current GPS position. Mow the lawn any which way you want to, and you'll still end up with the final image.
posted by odinsdream at 12:09 PM on December 3, 2007

Yes! I had this idea a long time ago, but was too lazy to actually pursue it. If they get it to work, there a lot of grassy hillsides overlooking suburban neighborhoods that could use a good goatse-ing...
posted by Potsy at 12:22 PM on December 3, 2007

a kedvenc rajzoló fűnyíród egy kalap szar.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:25 PM on December 3, 2007

Oh come on, what kind of results could they possibly produce with a "modded" lawnmower on a-- HOLY CRAP IS THAT A SHADED PORTRAIT?!!1?!
posted by gwint at 12:28 PM on December 3, 2007

Alas, gwint, it's just an artist's rendering. They weren't super-aggressive about pointing that out, were they?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 12:38 PM on December 3, 2007

Bastards. I guess this will have to do for now.
posted by gwint at 1:38 PM on December 3, 2007

It's a long way from "HELLC" to the Mona Lisa...I'll check back in a few years.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 2:55 PM on December 3, 2007