British architect Asif Khan’s MegaFace art installation was teased well before the athletes had even arrived in Sochi. But now that the Winter Olympics are well under way, we’ve finally got footage of the giant automated pinscreen in action — and it’s even more awesome than we’d hoped.
Over 10,000 coloured pistons move in and out by up to six feet to recreate the faces of visitors who’ve had their portrait snapped in 3D in booths located around the city. And at over eight metres tall, each representation is actually larger than the Statue of Liberty’s face.
Over the course of the Olympics it’s expected that over 170,000 faces will be rendered on the massive wall, and originally its creators had dabbled in using the colour-changing LEDs to accurately recreate each person’s skin tones. But the results ended up being so creepy and lifelike they decided to abandon that approach for something more artistically interpretive. [Vimeo via Wired]