Drivers on the interstate in Massachusetts got some “visual realignment” from the real world as they passed artist Brian Kane’s temporary site-specific public art installation for a few weeks this summer.

Healing Tool, Kane’s digital billboard tableaux, offered commuters a little unexpected and temporary relief from the daily grind of their commutes.

A nod to the Photoshop tool used to replace an image’s missing background while displaying it in a dimensional window, the installation simulated real world experiences replacing them with digital ones, patching over and blending them back into the landscape blocked by the billboard.

As vehicles passed during daylight hours, a series of images from the specific location appeared, creating a motion parallax effect where objects closer to drivers appeared to move faster than objects which were further away.

After dark, the billboards displayed high-resolution images of the moon synced to the daily phase, enabling drivers to view the moon unaffected by the effects of urban light pollution.

“Thematically, the piece is ambiguously green,” said Kane of the installation. “It appears to be replacing the artificial with the natural, but it’s really just using technology to simulate a nature replacement. It’s also a form of “unvertising” – a campaign without a message. By removing the marketing message from the advertising space, we create an unexpected moment of introspection. People are allowed to interpret an image based on their own experience, and not necessarily with the singular focus of the advertiser’s intent.”

For a similar experience, see Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch’s Camouflage View. Which do you prefer? Weigh in on this one by commenting below.

Click here for more stories about public art. What about a billboard as an urban garden?

Photos via the artist. h/t Design Faves.