This Spiky Shower Curtain Concept Kicks You Out After 4 Minutes

There's nothing quite like a nice, long shower to relieve stress and feel refreshed, but there are environmental consequences to enjoying them.

London-based textile installation artist and educator Elisabeth Buecher is bringing those consequences to light with "Spiky," an inflatable shower curtain that's designed to kick bathers out of the shower after just four minutes. The curtain is inspired by a spiked medievaltorture device Buecher spotted in Tim Burton's film "Sleepy Hollow."

The curtain is not actually for sale; it's an art installation created to encourage people to think twice about their water usage. Spiky, along with another curtain Buecher created that inflates around a bather until they are trapped, is intended to make people more aware of consumption, she said.

"I wanted to create this project because I do believe that it is very hard to do things that feel uncomfortable even if it is for our own good, and we need a little help to force us to do it," she told The Huffington Post. "I see my curtains like alarm clocks: you don't want to get up in the morning, but you have to, and the alarm clock helps you to do it."

It's easy to forget that clean, running water is a luxury when you're busy lathering up, but Spiky may help us all do that in the future. Buecher said she'd "love" to develop it as a commercial product.

Also on HuffPost Home: