Critter Connect
Sensory wearable for more entangled multispecies relationships
What role can wearable technology play in cultivating deeper ecological awareness and multispecies coexistence in situ?
Critter Connect is a wearable device that fosters the emergence of multispecies relationships anchored in specific ecosystems through geolocation and sensory stimuli. Drawing on posthuman theories and More-than-Human geography, Critter Connect reconfigures the relationship between humans and other beings by facilitating direct, place-specific, sensory-rich interactions.
The wearable engages users with three local species in the endangered Tagus estuary ecosystem: the Purple Heron, the Mole Cricket, and the Eurasian Otter. Species were chosen based on their moderate presence in the area (not too rare to facilitate encounters but not too common to stimulate curiosity and engagement), their connection to the local ecosystem and population, their diverse habitats encouraging the wearer to embrace multiple perspectives, and their declining population at the European level. Connected to an online map, Critter Connect uses light and haptic stimuli to notify wearers when they enter another species ‘contact zone’, exploring less ocular-centric approaches that account for the diverse sensory experiences and non-linguistic modes of communication of other beings. Users can then play the species’ call through an embedded speaker, potentially initiating spontaneous multispecies dialogues.
The Critter Connect user journey.
The development of Critter Connect was informed by Research-through-Design principles that emphasise critical reflection and iterative development in two phases. First, technology experts, design researchers, and nature enthusiasts were invited to participate in exploratory and speculative activities (Noticing Sensory probes, Magic machine workshops, and brainstorming) to understand better how they would like to engage in multispecies relationships and what technologies could support those new interactions. Building on the learnings from this first phase, we engaged in designerly bodily explorations of shape, material, sensory stimuli, and electronic components to identify the challenges of designing technology for multispecies encounters and involve diverse perspectives to ideate and test multiple approaches.
Research & speculative exploration. Left: noticing sensory probes. Centre: Magic Machine workshop. Right: experts brainstorming.
Designerly exploration. Left: one of the analogue prototype. Centre: a researcher testing the hardware in a nearby park. Right: final wearable shape and hardware position.
Critter Connect was deployed with three nature enthusiasts through a pre-walk briefing, a self-guided walk with the researcher shadowing the participant, and a semi-structured interview. All three walkers had spent extended time outdoors in the Tagus reserve area in the past six months and were familiar with some species inhabiting it. Findings from our pilot study highlighted the limits and opportunities in developing technology to engage with nature; the role embodied technology can play in generating human, More-than-Human, and technological 'assemblage'; and the importance of ethics and care when designing with other species. By facilitating embodied, sensory-rich interactions, the wearable supports more considerate relationships with More-than-Human, enhancing users' felt sense of connection with the environment.
A second Critter Connect prototype, which will further the use of alternative sensory stimuli through geometry-based tactile feedback and tailor the sense of touch to each species, is currently being developed for Madeira's Levadas as part of the LoGa Culture transmedia journey.
Click here to read the Critter Connect pictorial. (forthcoming)
Design overview of the Critter Connect first prototype.
Testing the Critter Connect in the wild. Left: participant holding the device information sheet. Centre: participant walking with the device. Right: participant pressing the speaker button to engage with another species.