Niklas Roy is a Berlin based artist. With a background in visual communication and previous work in visual effects and film, Roy creates participatory art installations that bridge art, science, and technology. His practice emphasizes hands-on creation - constructing, programming, and building his own artworks. By documenting his work comprehensively on niklasroy.com, including construction plans under open licenses, he encourages others to build upon his creative foundations.

Roy’s works have been shown all around the world, except Antarctica.

Thanks for joining us, Niklas. How are you today?

I'm quite busy these days. Next week I'll set up an installation in Japan and right after that, I have an opening in Belgium with a brand new work. I'm quite excited about this!

Irony, humor, interaction, and technology... From an outside perspective, you seem like an art inventor. How would you describe yourself and your art?

This captures me and my work already quite well. In fact, it was one of my childhood dreams to become an inventor. I like to use technology as a medium, because it fascinates me and I’m always curious to learn new concepts and methods, that’s why I make most things by myself. And I like interactive and participatory art because it can have quite an impact on visitors and communities. There’s too little humour in the art world, IMHO, so I try to compensate for that with my works ;)

Maschinenmosaik, 2023. Collaborative mural.

(Left) Building the cabinet

(Middle) The finished mobile arcade machine

(Right) Final photo of the Mosaikmaschine in front of the Maschinenmosaik

For more background information on the piece, you can check out Niklas’ website here.

We’re curious about how an idea begins and comes to life for you. Do you have a specific creation ritual or method? Also how long does it take for you to create?

Ideas often come from doing. When I work on a machine, there’s often some repetitive stuff to do which leaves plenty of time for thinking. During that process, usually a couple of ideas pop up that I’d also like to explore. Some can be quick weekend experiments, others I keep for later and then I realize them when it fits, that can be even years later.

Ultimately, I don’t think coming up with ideas is the hard part. The real work is in polishing them: figuring out what’s truly important, thinking about the audience’s experience, and tackling practical concerns—like how to transport or store the work.

As my projects have various sizes, some things can be made really fast, within a day or two and other projects take several months. But coming up with ideas is always easy.

Instant Art Career, 2013. Interactive Installation & Performance.

The curtain in your studio was one of the works that drew us to you. In Turkiye, privacy is a highly valued concept. What was your inspiration when creating “My Little Piece of Privacy”?

That goes back to a conversation with my neighbor. My studio is located in a little shopfront and in the window, I usually just put random stuff. Sometimes too many things accumulate and on one of such occasions, my neighbor suggested that I should put a curtain in my window, probably to hide my trashy looking collection of empty yoghurt cups which I wanted to upcycle.

At first, I thought it was a silly idea to put a curtain in my window. But then I thought it would be funny if it were a small, but intelligent curtain. So I transformed a mundane suggestion into something playful and unexpected.

My Litte Piece of Privacy, 2010. Interactive installation.

Some of the pieces we’ve seen among your interactive and humorous works seem like they would be social and funny if they were people. Do they share similarities with your own character? What kind of person are you?

I also like to think of my creations as characters and I can spend a lot of time watching them. Maybe that also fits my character, as I like to observe and I also like to look at things from unusual perspectives. In the end, humour is a matter of perspective and I like to share this perspective through my works.

How long did it take for you to discover and settle into your signature style? If you could speak to yourself at the beginning of your artistic journey, what advice would you give?

Do I really have a signature style? My aim is actually to try out many different things and not to repeat myself too much, so I hope that this is reflected in my work and it would be nice if my style would also be constantly evolving. That would also be the advice that I’d give to my younger self: try not to repeat yourself too much. But then again, my younger self had figured out that as well already.

Your piece "GENERATIVE ART 1€" feels like a mechanized version of AI-driven art software. While your works involve technology, they often have an analog and familiar feel. How do you perceive technology and the future?

Wow, those are the big questions! Technical developments are moving so fast these days, that I wouldn’t be surprised if AI had taken over the world by the time this interview is published.

But I’m personally not really too interested in working with the latest technologies. I certainly try to avoid hypes and I simply like the haptic quality of mechanisms.

“GENERATIVE ART 1€“, 2024.

What is the last thing you recorded or documented? Do you have a collection—whether digital or physical?

The last thing I recorded was indeed a short video of “GENERATIVE ART 1€”, because it will be shipped to Belgium tomorrow and before, I wanted to make sure that I have a proper video of it. It might take a while until I publish the full documentation, though, because my calendar is quite full.

Regarding collections, I actually do collect a lot of technical things and parts which I might want to use in the future. Another thing that I’m collecting publicly, are pictures from my phone. You can find them all here.

Do you have a favorite spot in your studio?

That’s a good question. The best spot might always be the spot where I can do what I want to do at that moment. If I need to drill a hole into some material, it’s at the drilling machine and if I develop electronics, I have a comfortable workbench for that. I also like to spend time at the computer, though, designing something or writing code.

Outside of Niklas’ workshop.

Do you have any plans for the future? What excites you most about it?

I am quite happy with my life right now: I can spend a lot of time working on my ideas and I like to see how others enjoy what I’ve been doing. My dream is already reality.

Cyborg Control, 2021. Interactive Workshop Window Installation.