A Picture of a Picture of a Picture of Me: Forever 21 Digital Billboard
IMG_4670(2) N.B. See my profile for usage guidelines.
You're in Times Square. First you see a huge screen showing a live video of the crowd that is viewing the screen (including you -- move the cursor over the photo in the photo to see us). Then a young female model appears, takes a Polaroid snapshot of the crowd, and shows the developed image to the crowd. In a variant that seems to have been dropped because of a controversy, the model appears to pick up a person in the crowd and put that person into her shopping bag.
This image sits above -- and advertises -- the Forever 21 superstore in Times Square, which sells trendy clothes to teenagers. Designed by the ad agency Space150 and developed by D3, the digital billboard uses custom-built security surveillance software to enable the models to "interact" with the crowd. "The billboard relies on technology that's usually used in government or security surveillance, and Space150 had to consult surveillance experts to pull it off. Above the 61-foot-high face a high definition Prosilica camera captures the crowd. But then, software picks apart the individuals in the crowd, and selects some for a digital composite built in real-time, which is then used in the interactions with the virtual model on screen," says Fast Company at www.fastcompany.com/1663846/times-square-billboards-use-s...
See also www.timessquare.com/New_York_City/Times_Square_NYC/The_Br...
You can see a video of the billboard at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBtPnUKn1fU
"Most ads people look at for three to six seconds," comments Billy Jurewicz, founder of Space150. "Ours is an average of 10 minutes." www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/10/21/Times-Square-D3...
A controversy has developed over authorship of the idea. Wikipedia: "It is alleged that Forever 21's advertising agency, space150 and director Nicholaus Goossen, copied a similar piece - created in 2009 - from London by interactive artist Chris O'Shea. These allegations have led to heated exchanges on Vimeo between Goossen and other users, including well-known members of the interactive and new media art communities. Both space150 and Goossen have since apologized publicly on Vimeo." (Wikipedia also describes various over controversies involving Forever 21.)
The controversy is described in detail at:
www.fastcompany.com/1664669/times-square-billboard-touche...
"A lot of people benefited in a lot of different ways from the Times Square billboard.... But one person -- the artist who invented the core premise, and who showed that it could be done -- received nothing."
A Picture of a Picture of a Picture of Me: Forever 21 Digital Billboard
IMG_4670(2) N.B. See my profile for usage guidelines.
You're in Times Square. First you see a huge screen showing a live video of the crowd that is viewing the screen (including you -- move the cursor over the photo in the photo to see us). Then a young female model appears, takes a Polaroid snapshot of the crowd, and shows the developed image to the crowd. In a variant that seems to have been dropped because of a controversy, the model appears to pick up a person in the crowd and put that person into her shopping bag.
This image sits above -- and advertises -- the Forever 21 superstore in Times Square, which sells trendy clothes to teenagers. Designed by the ad agency Space150 and developed by D3, the digital billboard uses custom-built security surveillance software to enable the models to "interact" with the crowd. "The billboard relies on technology that's usually used in government or security surveillance, and Space150 had to consult surveillance experts to pull it off. Above the 61-foot-high face a high definition Prosilica camera captures the crowd. But then, software picks apart the individuals in the crowd, and selects some for a digital composite built in real-time, which is then used in the interactions with the virtual model on screen," says Fast Company at www.fastcompany.com/1663846/times-square-billboards-use-s...
See also www.timessquare.com/New_York_City/Times_Square_NYC/The_Br...
You can see a video of the billboard at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBtPnUKn1fU
"Most ads people look at for three to six seconds," comments Billy Jurewicz, founder of Space150. "Ours is an average of 10 minutes." www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/10/21/Times-Square-D3...
A controversy has developed over authorship of the idea. Wikipedia: "It is alleged that Forever 21's advertising agency, space150 and director Nicholaus Goossen, copied a similar piece - created in 2009 - from London by interactive artist Chris O'Shea. These allegations have led to heated exchanges on Vimeo between Goossen and other users, including well-known members of the interactive and new media art communities. Both space150 and Goossen have since apologized publicly on Vimeo." (Wikipedia also describes various over controversies involving Forever 21.)
The controversy is described in detail at:
www.fastcompany.com/1664669/times-square-billboard-touche...
"A lot of people benefited in a lot of different ways from the Times Square billboard.... But one person -- the artist who invented the core premise, and who showed that it could be done -- received nothing."