Forever 21 Doles Out Model Kisses and Rejections in Times Square

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After three years of grumbling about disappearing local institutions on his first-rate blog Vanishing New York, Jeremiah Moss is branching out with a new site named...the Grumbler. OK, so the theme doesn't seem that wildly different, but the site is already off to a good start with a curmudgeonly post about Forever 21's interactive billboard in Times Square. Stand in the right spot in the square, and the billboard's giant model will snap a photo of you. Then she's got a choice: She can either kiss you, put you in a Forever 21 bag, stick you under her hat, or throw you over her shoulder.

The idea comes from Chris O'Shea's public art piece "Hand from Above," which offered the same interactivity minus the mega-model (and the marketing angle.) Designboom explains that ad agency Space 150 used "high-tech surveillance equipment and computer vision technology" to map the crowd and capture individual images. Depending on how you feel about having your likeness projected onto a 61-foot screen, it's either totally genius or kind of frightening. (The Grumbler calls it "another blow to our public privacy.") If you're so inspired, let us know where you stand in the comments.

Times Square Billboard by Space150 from Cliff Kuang on Vimeo.

· Forever [The Grumbler]
· space150: forever 21 interactive billboard [Designboom]
· Hand from Above [Chris O'Shea]