Painting Music with Pachyderms
Enriching Animals Lives
Caretakers of animals in captivity use enrichment to keep species’ minds and bodies active. Objects and activities can use environmental, behavioral, and social enrichment to improve animal welfare. These exercises and experiences frequently include objects that simulate natural behaviors, such as foraging or climbing. Art is a valuable form of enrichment used often in Zoos and Aquariums.
Full video
The Elephant Artist
While painting with Kelly the elephant at Zoo Atlanta I noticed she avoided the color yellow. With this project, I wanted to see if adding music would add to the experience and increase the time spent on the activity.
Design Scenario
To create this, a device named a Makey Makey is programmed to create sounds when the elephant’s paintbrush touches the paint. The Makey Makey is connected by a cord to the keeper to ground it (who is touching the elephant’s trunk) and an additional cord to the paint palette. The code to create the music generation is developed in Processing.
Materials
Prototype Testing
With adjustments to the material, we worked with the Zoo Atlanta staff and tested the prototype. Kelly experienced no negative behaviors. More work on length of interaction time is needed before any definitive claims on stay time are made.
