Show HN: Laser Graffiti | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Laser Graffiti

laser.consti.de

253 pointscon61 comments

https://graffitiresearchlab.com/blog/projects/laser-tag/#vid...

everything old is new again, and toys will be toys

Heh I was just about to say, people were doing stuff like this at Parsons/ITP a decade and a half ago, at least...haven't thought about GRL in a while, thanks for the flashback

This is what I immediately thought of as well, I'm just grateful you remembered the name of the project.

An absolute blast from the past, thank you for unlocking the memories of me reading these cool projects way back when!

This is even older (I think), similar idea of building interactive experiences using off-the-shelf lasers: https://web.archive.org/web/20040202205307/http://www.monzy....

kids don't think we have memories.

i’m so happy this is the top comment. i’m someone who found the GRL as… a middle schooler and boy was it the coolest thing i’ve ever seen at the time

I love this project!

I saw this back in the day and it inspired me to build this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x034jVB1avs

I hacked together some game jam games with it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7A6TEthPQ

Alexis Ohanian commented on my video, which was awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF_OCvjq3ps

I eventually built a laser drawing system too. I used a 532 nanometer optical filter taped to a webcam to isolate green laser pointer light, then drew a sampled approximation of the shapes. I recorded that somewhere, but never uploaded it...

In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't get in trouble for this.

that is so fun! I live in a huge building with a wall that would be perfect for this. what kind of hardware do you run?

Thanks! This was absolutely the inspiration - and I've also mentioned it on the page (right under the video) and in the repository's Readme.

The video is referenced in the article as an inspiration.

If you want something a bit more "permament" there's the LaserPecker portal 10W engraver.

https://us.laserpecker.net/products/laserpecker-lp4-portable...

I was there the night GRL got a rig working, f&m piling gear onto the bicycle cart, and trundling it around Vienna, looking for apt spots to beam things. It appealed to my seedbombing instincts immensely, of course, and is such an obvious idea all things considered.

Apropos civic protest and public art throwing, there is nothing greater than being able to draw rude things on the faces of buildings, or indeed - massive art. It is an immensely rewarding experience - the edifice becomes the canvas.

They moved on to bigger things, alas f passed away too fast, and I always wondered why we don't see more GRL out there, in the streets.

Another great 'public putting art in places' activity, incidentally born around the same scene (metalab), is the artificial museum:

https://artificialmuseum.com

.. a public collection of augmented reality models deposited in strategic locations. I've got one in there somewhere ...

While this is interesting, what I really wanted to see was more 'graffiti' and less 'laser'.

Graffiti, fundamentally, is a defacement of public property as a form of artistic self expression. To that end, why not combine this with a laser engraver instead of a laser pointer?

Imagine hooking this up and then literally carving your graffiti into the side of a brick building. Or burning it into the paint on a metal container car.

Obviously such a thing has the potential for serious bodily harm and could start building or wild fires inadvertently, to say nothing of the energy consumption requirements such a laser engraver would necessitate.

Counterpoint: rule of cool.

You’ll probably burn your retinas with the backscatter

Defacement is not the point of graffiti. It's fundamentally visual, not fundamentally destructive.

Ask the people who have to clean it off.

they have no choice, and i don't care what their bosses think.

That is a really edgy and cool opinion.

Seriously? 99% is some stupid tag.. no art at all.. just the equivalent of a dog lifting his leg in paint..

"Can you tell the jury what you told investigators when you decided to use computerized directed energy weapons to target civllian infrastructure?"

"...rule of cool?"

> Graffiti, fundamentally, is a defacement of public property

Both wrong. Neither is defacement the point nor doing it to public property. Fundamentally it's a visual art form and whether that's on private or public property is insubstantial.

It's surely intervoven with anarchic protest and that's where the defacement angle comes in. Similarly, public property as a symbol of the state that is rejected plays often a role. Though that's ironic too since if the "artist" comes from a left-leaning anarchic background then damaging public goods is kinda counterproductive, as opposed to private property of the rich who are the more usual target for symbolizing oppression of the poor.

Both statements are wrong. But yours is wrong-er. You are thinking of street art. Or just spray paint art. The whole point of graffiti is to "get up". If you don't know what getting up is, you should not be espousing any opinions on what graffiti is and isn't.

In fact, I'm aware what it means and don't see how that and what I wrote are contradictory.

Though not everybody around here may know, so how about you educate folks instead of being condescending?

Getting your tag up somewhere can surely be considered art. It's fine if you personally don't, but you are not speaking for others. Nor is it clear why you feel entitled to explain to me what I am supposedly thinking.

Reciting ancient Roman graffiti

https://youtu.be/-qSETCKlzQQ

I will be happy to come over your place and destroy your stuff by adding my graffiti "art" to it

I didn't say it's not damaging. But that's a side effect, not the goal.

I was hoping for the same. If we're going to live in a cyberpunk dystopia we could at least have some cool anarchist tools to go with it.

WARNING: DO NOT LOOK INTO LASER WITH REMAINING EYE

Arr: You are not the pi-rated captain of me..

>coolness as a function of danger

Well now you got me started. Why not engrave your message into the surface of a celestial body via a carefully aimed series of orbital bombardments?

Please tell me where you live. I'd like to come over and ruin your property with graffiti and see how you like it.

> defacement of public property

Plenty of graffiti is on private property.

About $15 billion is spent dealing with property destruction by graffiti. All of which is passed on to tax payers and consumers.

> Graffiti, fundamentally, is a defacement of public property as a form of artistic self expression.

The "Musée de la mémoire des murs" (museum of walls' memories), previously named "Musée des Grafittis historiques" sees grafittis much beyond your strict definition. https://www.verneuil-en-halatte.fr/musee-de-la-memoire-des-m...

I visited it long ago, but I remember drawings by prisoners on cells walls. Definitely not public property (or not visible by a wide public from public places).

Very cool. I remember seeing a video of some people doing this on a whole building… found it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbtTPYZEig&t=30s

same crew as is referenced here too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49513717

Hi HN and สวัสดีครับ! I remember seeing this the first time in Vienna by a friend of mine, Michi who came back from NYC and I believe he learned about it at the local hacker space at the time: NYC resistor.

I knew Michi through the Metalab, our hacker space in Vienna. Originally the idea seems to have been from the Graffiti Research Lab, which is also what I've linked to on my page and in the repo's Readme.

I think the version that Michi used was a MacOS app (not sure which framework), but I've always wanted to make it a web app. So all you need now is a projector, a laser pointer, and a laptop (with a camera).

I've already tried a few fun setups (eg using the iPhone's camera or using AirPlay connected to the projector). It's quite flexible.

Let me know if you end up using it and please share videos / photos and I'd be happy to put them up.

I know the original is old-skool cool, which I think makes this a fun project.

I'll try to set it up at the next CCC (2027) - if you see me there, come say Hi (I'll probably be in a banana costume).

Sushimako, my YC cofounder actually reminded me of some more details:

Here's a video [0] of Bre Pettis talking with Michi about Laser Tagging from the Graffiti Research Lab in Austria [1].

And the app by Michi and oneup (my other YC cofounder!) was written in Processing.

[0] https://youtu.be/isfrCIhQ5HE [1] https://graffitiresearchlab.at

The original, or at least the first one that was released, was written in processing. I have the sourcecode around somewhere, doubt it will still compile though.

Not drawing (yet), about to arrive, but I built a whole projected arcade system on the same vibe, but way before vibecoding… :)

https://s-argame.com

This is really cool! I wonder if for the drip on neon you could make it start from the bottom of the line to make it a little smoother. And maybe you could try making it translucent for the marker so it matches the marker ink.

triggered some memories of other fun projects:

- gray scale image made from laser and fading glow in the dark paint https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUa9UgAZTIY

- i remember a version of this phosphorescent wall at the los angeles children's musuem. a strobe imprinted your shadow. https://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/shadow-box

Always wanted to mess around with a projector like this! The alignment problem on weird surfaces must have been a fun challenge.

What made GRL’s project really unique was the -scale-!

Being able to paint the facade of a 20-story building must have felt ultra powerful.