For hardened New Yorkers dashing from yellow cab to yelling soup-man via that lake in Central Park (that’s New York in a nutshell, right? FILMS TELL US SO), last week saw a chance to ditch the giant pretzel and turn the frown upside down. Bird on a Wire was a blink-and-you-missed-it storefront projection of sweet little birds, who tweeted and twittered the old-fashioned way when passers-by called a designated number.

Created by Masters students of NYU, the project has been described as a ‘literal call-to-action’, and served as welcome incentive to stop, look and listen. The harmonious combination of cutting edge technology with soul-soothing nature is the kind of thing that gives us faith in the future, and makes us less scared that robots might one day rise from their beepy beds and drive us from our homes. Or something to that effect.