Designer Elisabeth Buecher has developed a unique shower curtain that kicks you out of the shower after four minutes, in an effort to reduce water consumption. Dubbed “Spiky,” the curtain has soft spikes (don’t worry they don’t hurt!) that inflate after four minutes of the shower running, taking up all available space so the person has to get out.
The London-based artist said she wanted to find a creative way to force people to adjust their long shower habits.
“I do believe that it is very hard to do things that feel uncomfortable even if it is for our own good, [like] saving water, and we need a little help to force us to do it,” Buecher told The Huffington Post in an email.
Spiky operates using a water tap with a sensor that after the set time of water running, triggers the inflation of the spikes using an air inflator. Currently, the invention is just an art installation, and not yet available for home use.
“I would love to develop it into a commercial product,” Buecher told HuffPost. “People get very excited about it for lots of different reasons … design, ecology, education, art. … The curtains [create] a lot of interesting discussions across fields.”
We’re excited about the potential of this design too, after all as the wise lyricist Madonna cried out in her 2008 smash hit “we only got 4 minutes to save the world.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.