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Robotic “For Rent” Sign Stalks Passersby


August 7, 2013 | Andy Cush

Here’s a pragmatic-ish application for esoteric tech art techniques: À LOUER/FOR RENTby self-described “inventor of useless things” Niklas Roy. The piece, created for Éspace [IM] Média, a Canadian media art festival, features an “Á Louer” (yes, that’s “For Rent” to you) sign installed in an abandoned-looking storefront. Whenever a pedestrian walked by, the sign would follow them, seemingly desperate to be looked at. Watch the thoroughly charming video above.

“Sherbrooke’s downtown has many abandoned shop fronts,” Roy writes on his website. “My installation was set up in one of them. And as nobody likes to stroll in roads with empty shop windows, I wanted to do this retail space a favour and help it to find a new tenant who can care about it.”