Niklas Roy’s My little piece of privacy

Niklas Roy is a Berlin artist who has a workshop with a street-facing window. Apparently tired of all the nosy passersby, he set up a robotic curtain and camera that detects people on the street as they walk past. The curtain travels with them, aggressively preventing them from having a proper look into Roy’s workshop.

I like how this project engages people in a very unexpected way. People walking around in city streets never expect buildings and other static surroundings to recognize and react to them. They often break out of their routine to take a second look and have a little fun in the middle of their walk.

Some things that I’m not sure about: interestingly, the curtain takes on a certain personality, but the personality reminds me of a very manic and paranoid hermit; also, the artist likes to be very coy and say that he made this to keep people away, but obviously it is more useful at getting attention.