Colossal
Online art and design magazine covering unusual art, craft, photography, and design projects from around the world.
What HN says
HN commenters recommend it for finding interesting content and creative work, and link its posts with pictures and video, such as the Lego Great Wave sculpture.
Stats for nerds
253HN people shared it
275linked in comments
4.1Kstory points
Aug 2026last shared
Top posts on HN
- 1A 97-Year-Old Man Who Draws Using Microsoft Paint from Windows ’951 person · 596 points · first shared 2013 · 136 comments on HN
- 2Google Street View Hyperlapses [video]1 person · 461 points · first shared 2013 · 67 comments on HN
- 3Ride through Wuppertal on ‘the flying train’ in clear footage from 19021 person · 327 points · first shared 2020 · 130 comments on HN
- 4When TV Logos Were Physical Objects4 people · 310 points · first shared 2017 · 65 comments on HN
- 5An image of the Australian desert illuminates satellite pollution1 person · 194 points · first shared 2025 · 128 comments on HN
- 6Bird photographer of the year gives a lesson in planning and patience1 person · 187 points · first shared 2025 · 44 comments on HN
- 7Solar-Powered 3D Printer that Prints Glass from Sand4 people · 154 points · first shared 2011 · 22 comments on HN
- 8Programmable 6,000-Part Drawing Boy Automaton Built 240 Years Ago3 people · 143 points · first shared 2013 · 39 comments on HN
- 9271 years before Pantone, every color imaginable in an 800-page book5 people · 110 points · first shared 2014 · 37 comments on HN
- 10The Visual Patterns of Audio Frequencies Seen through Vibrating Sand2 people · 105 points · first shared 2013 · 37 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
- karaterobotMay 2021
Just realized that the "blogs" category in my Feedly has 347 entries in it, and about half of them haven't published in more than 3 months.
Here are some that are prolific and good:
https://marginalrevolution.com/
Marginal Revolution: wide-ranging and prolific blog about economics and culture.
https://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com
Anecdotal Evidence: well-written personal blog, mostly observations on books.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/
Krebs on Security: about information security. It's written for a popular audience, which is about the level at which I understand the subject.
https://mjtsai.com/blog/
Michael Tsai: collects quotes from other people about ongoing software-related news.
https://acquisitiontalk.com
Acquisition Talk: about weapons system acquisition, government procurement, etc. Something I wanted to follow because it's a huge sector that doesn't get a lot of attention.
https://www.futilitycloset.com/
Futility Closet: wunderkammer-style blog with historical miscellany, quotes, puzzles, etc. Also a great podcast.
https://www.tor.com/tag/jo-walton-reads/
Jo Walton's Reading List: Not strictly a blog, but it's in my RSS feeds. I like to see what she's reading lately, and sometimes I get good recommendations from her (e.g. KJ Parker).
https://www.bldgblog.com/
BLDGBLOG: about design, architecture, etc.
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/
Colossal: about art and design.
https://www.subtraction.com/
Subtraction: about design
- rapjr9Jul 2022
Something like this has been done before:
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/11/an-aerial-laser-display-capable-of-projecting-3d-objects-in-mid-air/
Not sure why there don't seem to be any practical uses of it (at least I have not seen any such displays anywhere in my life or for sale anywhere.) Maybe because the brightness of the lasers is a public danger. Seems like otherwise we would have laser video projected onto the sky by now for advertising.
- sampoSep 2018
It's kinda nice, how you can take a bunch of metal wires to make a tree trunk, and start separating them and folding them into branches, and separating and folding into smaller branches, and this can give pretty realistic looking trees.
https://diyjoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/WireTree.jpg
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/10/dense-wire-tree-sculptures-by-clive-maddison/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0tj_ZLpv80
- michrassenaJan 2020
Visually, I'm reminded of this project. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/02/drinking-straw-camera/
I know CCDs for astrophotography have large photosites to increase the signal/noise ratio. It seems like this array would have the same qualities.
Do you know what the dynamic range is, how many stops the sensor can capture?
This is really interesting, so I'd really like to see a write-up instead of just a video.
- nmstokerAug 2019
I thought from the headline it might be a case of hearing broadband modems (I tend to be able to hear when my home one is more/less active) but this is more involved and is genuinely listening to the WiFi (my modem noises are not really the WiFi itself).
Reminds me of a visualisation project from several years back: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/02/visualizing-wifi/
- NzenDec 2020
Short read. Describes Jumpei Mitsui's lego sculpture of the great wave print. No pictures. I recommend https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/12/jumpei-mitsui-great-wave-lego/ which has pictures and embedded video links. The value add here is in relaying that he chose solid blue and lighting rather than different colored bricks for the different shades.