Augmented Reality Finger Billboard Prods, Destroys Passersby

Chris O’Shea, an artist with latent fantasies about growing into a giant and teasing, then destroying, the people of Liverpool, England, has a new installation! It’s a live video billboard that teases, then destroys, the people of Liverpool, England.

The piece, titled “Hand from Above”, is best explained in video, but in any case it’s fairly simple: a live camera feed from in front of the billboard is overlaid with a giant finger, which has its way, such as it does, with rapt viewers. The tickling and teasing soon gets more severe, and before you know it, said finger is throwing you off of the pavement, or shrinking you into nothingness.

The effect is playful and charming for adults, though it may cause minor metaphysical crises in small children and pets. For art! [Interactive Architecture via Make]