Niklas Roy - Cyborg Control

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Style Pass

2021-07-09 11:30:09

Our workshop, which is a former shop space in eastern Berlin, has a large window facing the street. We're used to people peeking in, but during the coronavirus pandemic the window has become an even more important way to maintain a dialogue with the neighborhood. Last spring we displayed a hacked plotter for people to interact with. This spring the window was taken over by a remote-controllable toy cyborg with a little doll head. Over several weeks, a miniature world kept growing around the cyborg, so there was always something new to discover. People could walk the cyborg to different locations with their smartphones and let the cyborg interact with its theatrical environment by pushing all kinds of buttons and triggering sensors.

The cyborgian world, which eventually filled the entire window, transferred ongoing pandemic themes into an imaginary microcosm. It was constructed largely using random materials that we had at home. At “Salon 3000” the cyborg could get a hair treatment and at “Späti 51”, a Berlin-style convenience store, an alien would greet him. While the actual Berghain nightclub remained closed, it was possible to dance off in “Borghain” - after visiting a “Test Center”.