Digital Art with Elok the Orangutan

Digital Art Made by Orangutans for Conservation

We approached Oklahoma City Zoo with an idea—since great apes already paint for enrichment, what if we recreated that experience in a digital format? Recently, many collectors of NFTs have started supporting great ape causes, donating to organizations like Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. With its novel approach, this NFT project hopes to take NFTs a step further—the digital art will be created by great apes benefitting great apes. The combination of fundraising and developing enrichment for great apes through the sale and resale of NFTs had to be explored.

The project is novel in its use of fundraising efforts, but the use of the Kinect and digital enrichment is a burgeoning effort in zoos and academia. I, created a similar scenario with orangutans at Zoo Atlanta for my master’s thesis at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The setup includes a movement-tracking camera that projects a visualization on a screen opposite the orangutan. The PVC paintbrush extender was changed to have a KONG toy at the end instead of a paintbrush.

Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden asked me to write about the digital painting enrichment we create for Elok the orangutan.

Through iteration, feedback, and bubbles?— creating digital art with Elok the orangutan

Read more about the design process at From Wand to Screen – OKC Zoo’s Orangutan Creates Digital Art NFTs for Conservation Thru Innovative Animal Enrichment

Adding Technology to Art Enrichment

The scenario is created with a Kinect camera that tracks Elok’s paintbrush. With all contact practices with orangutans, Elok is on the other side of a mesh from animal staff. The brush extends through the mesh and is tracked and displayed on a large screen.

After observing Elok’s painting on canvas, the team tried to replicate his style using similar brush styles created by code. The colors harken to color palettes used by abstract expressionists—Jackson Pollack, Helen Frankenthaler, and Sam Gilliam.

Elok expressed interest and positive behavior (increased stay time, attention, and receptiveness for the activity on returning day) when interacting with the digital paint enrichment. The process was entirely voluntary and under the supervision of his animal care staff at Oklahoma City Zoo.