My Little Piece of Privacy – Niklas Roy

Niklas Roy wants more privacy. His studio has a large window that faces the street. As a solution, Roy took a very small curtain and combined it with a mechanical system that is programmed to move the curtain according to the position of a passerby. Using a camera that detects motion, Roy’s program tells the curtain where to go in order to precisely and effectively block the view of an onlooker into the studio. Contrary to its purpose, the installation amusingly attracts more attention than it avoids. Roy uses a simple premise to successfully transform public space into an unexpected and unusual experience.

Captured: An Homage to Light and Air – Nils and Sven Völker at MADE space, Berlin

An installation that resulted from the collaboration between artist, graphic designer, and arduino attempts to pay homage to the light and to the air. Silver air bags are choreographed (through the use of processing and an arduino) to inflate and deflate, along with music and changing colored lights. Prints line the walls, declaring vague statements like “The Border” and “The Volume”.

I enjoy the air bags particularly, which have their own mysterious and uncanny beauty as they inflate and deflate in a strangely organic way. It is almost as if they are breathing, which seems contradictory to their artificial appearance. The sounds of the bag’s movements also adds another satisfying level to the sensory experience. On the other hand, the flashing lights were a little hokey and lend themselves more to a dance club than this particular installation. The prints on the wall also seem very disconnected from the air bag component; even the gallery introduces the project as when artist and graphic designer “clash”. I believe the piece would be a lot more interesting if the artist had concentrated and expanded on the use of the air bags instead of the lights or the prints.

People Staring at Computers – Kyle McDonald

People Staring at Computers is a program McDonald wrote and installed on various computers in Apple stores around New York City. The program took a picture every minute, and if it detected a face, the photo would be sent to McDonald’s server. The result was thousands of faces; truthful, unmediated, and surprisingly fascinating portraits of consumers and their relationship with technology. These portraits were ‘exhibited’ on the same computers that took the pictures.

The project would have continued to be interesting had it not been shut down by the secret service. The website has been taken down and the pictures have been censored with pictures of Steve Jobs. Kyle McDonald is now in serious trouble over this project, which obviously stirred up issues dealing with privacy rights. He could be sent to jail for twenty years for computer fraud. The strong reaction to the piece, though, makes it all the more interesting.