Niklas Roy
Niklas Roy is a Berlin-based artist and inventor whose work explores the intersection of art, science, and technology.
Installations
Generative Art 1€
Previous Works
Maschinenmosaik
Vektorkollektor
Deflektron
Cardboard Plotter
Socials
instagram
BIO
Embracing a hands-on, DIY approach to engineering, construction, and coding, he has created a wide range of physical installations and interactive machines. His creations have been exhibited internationally and have earned numerous awards.
Through art installations, designed objects/spaces, and interactive media, Niklas's projects play with and address the complex forces that shape contemporary culture. Some recurring themes of his practice include absurdity, genre fiction, conspiracy theories, world-making, storytelling, simulation, and the parafictional.
Roy's work often emphasizes interactivity and public engagement, aiming to break down barriers between artwork and viewer. He has developed interactive installations for science centers like Phaeno in Wolfsburg and Technorama in Winterthur, and has created permanent public artworks, including "Polyskop" (2021) for a public school in Berlin Neukölln.
Committed to accessibility and open-source principles, Roy shares his projects, plans, schematics, and source codes on his website, encouraging others to replicate, remix, and build upon his creations. He also maintains a photo diary offering behind-the-scenes insights into his creative process.
In addition to his artistic endeavors, Roy conducts creative technology workshops for all ages, often collaborating with his partner, Kati Hyyppä. Before transitioning to the art world, he worked in the film industry as a 3D animator, visual effects supervisor, and second unit director.
Roy's work has been featured in numerous institutions and events, including Ars Electronica (Austria), Experimenta (Australia), and the European Media Art Festival (Germany). He has also led workshops and lectures at various universities and festivals worldwide.
Installation: Generative Art 1€ (Responsive Dreams 2025)
“Generative Art 1€” is a coin-operated vending machine for unique plotter drawings. A generative algorithm continuously draws an animated black line on a screen, offering an endless stream of potential artworks. Each piece exists in a transient digital state until someone intervenes by spending a coin.
Shifting from passive observer to active participant, the audience plays a crucial role in the process. They make the curatorial decision to give the ephemeral digital drawing value and to turn it into a physical work. Inserting a coin triggers a pen plotter to precisely transfer the digital lines from the screen to paper. Once completed, the drawing is labeled with the seed value, then stamped for authenticity, emphasizing its status as an original work. The participant becomes a collector of fine art and can take the art piece home.
Each interaction with the installation produces a different result, as no two drawings are identical. The uniqueness stems from the algorithm's use of the UNIX/Epoch time as a seed variable. This ensures that every interaction with the installation creates a distinct piece.
By pricing each artwork at just one euro, the installation raises questions about the intrinsic value of machine-generated art, while also democratizing art consumption and collection by making original artworks affordable to all.
The heart of the machine is a recycled Czechoslovakian “Aritma Colorgraf” plotter, previously used in other projects. It is positioned beneath a modified flatscreen display. The screen's backlight was removed, leaving a thin transparent LCD panel that allows viewers to see directly onto the backlit paper below, creating a stunning effect when the drawn paper is moved behind the screen.
Two DIY mechanisms handle the finishing touches. After plotting, a repurposed windscreen wiper motor pulls the stamp via Bowden cables onto the paper, marking it with red ink as an approved original artwork. The cutting rig clamps the paper down with a ruler before a hobby knife glides along a linear rail. After cutting, the artwork drops into the dispensing chute.
The coin validator is a commercial part that had been stored in a junk box for several decades. It works entirely mechanically, checking the coin for its weight and dimensions. When it registers a one Euro coin, a microswitch is triggered and read by an Arduino Mega. The Arduino also drives the plotter and the rest of the hardware, and continuously communicates with the laptop in the back of the machine.
The laptop serves as the machine's brain. It runs the Python program that continuously generates the drawings. The code uses UNIX time as a seed value, as mentioned earlier. This seed feeds into various functions that calculate 1000 coordinates, which are connected to form a line. Some technically-minded readers might worry about the Y2K38 problem (also called the “Epochalypse”), as this time variable will eventually roll over, potentially compromising the uniqueness of the artworks. However, it will take about 137 years before the machine can render the same image again, using an identical seed. It is likely that the machine will be broken by that time.
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