I. Project Summary
The Haptic Petting Zoo is an interactive installation of autonomous kinetic sculptures that communicate exclusively through touch, vibration, and thermal sensation. By removing visual and auditory cues, the project challenges the ocular-centric nature of modern art and explores "haptic empathy": the ability of a machine to evoke an emotional response through tactile feedback alone.
Each creature in the zoo is housed in a modified industrial Pelican case, creating a rugged, modular Zoo-in-a-Box that can be deployed across Oregon galleries, libraries, and community spaces with zero technical friction. The project will be developed collaboratively at PDX Hackerspace, a community makerspace in Portland, engaging skilled fabricators and engineers while hosting free public work parties to demystify the intersection of art and hardware.
II. The Creative Stretch
This project represents a major career evolution from functional assistive technology to autonomous sculptural art. The objective is to stretch haptic expertise from the realm of utility into aesthetic and emotional resonance.
From Wearable to Sculptural: Moving from personal wearable devices to externalized sculptures requires a leap in scale and mechanical complexity. This project evolves a practice from "tools" to "entities." These sculptures will possess their own behavioral logic, reacting to proximity, touch pressure, and environmental conditions. Each creature will possess a distinct tactile personality, from slow-breathing mammalian presence to quick-twitching insectoid forms. One creature is a pelican: a bird that carries its world in a pouch, living inside the very case that bears its name.
Scale and Scope: The project will produce a minimum of 5 autonomous creatures, with the final count determined by budget optimization, building additional creatures as hardware costs allow, ensuring maximum community exposure while maintaining high build quality for each unit.
Expanding the Tactile Vocabulary: The technical architecture moves beyond simple vibration motors to a complex vocabulary of bio-haptics. High-cycle solenoids simulate heartbeat patterns and breathing rhythms; Peltier elements create rapid thermal shifts to suggest metabolic activity; and servo-driven pressure patterns add texture and resistance.
Durability as Design: The shift to a Pelican-based chassis is a deliberate evolution in fabrication philosophy. Prioritizing longevity and public-readiness over fragile gallery aesthetics, the industrial case format ensures the work survives a multi-year touring lifecycle.
Collaborative Emergence: As a "public residency" at PDX Hackerspace, the project opens a specialized haptic design philosophy to a wide spectrum of makers—from mechanical engineers to textile designers—to see what emerges when rigorous technical systems integration meets community-driven creative experimentation.
III. Community Collaboration & Creative Process
As lead artist, I provide the curatorial vision, electronic system design, firmware, and haptic architecture. I will use the grant to fund professional stipends for four to five expert makers within the PDX Hackerspace community to assist with mechanical rigging, textile "skins," and enclosure engineering.
PDX Hackerspace hosts free public Saturday work parties every week. These gatherings act as open studio sessions, allowing the community to witness the inner workings of the creatures as they are engineered. Visitors can watch prototyping, test early haptic responses, and help calibrate tactile intensities, fostering a transparent dialogue about the intersection of art and hardware.
IV. Public Engagement: Zoo-in-a-Box & Oregon Tour
Low-Barrier Deployment Model: The Zoo-in-a-Box format removes traditional barriers to exhibition: no specialized installation teams, complex mounting systems, or extended load-in periods. Each self-contained case can activate in minutes, from formal gallery spaces to community libraries and maker conferences. The sculptures remain within their Pelican cases; the cases serve as both transport and habitat, providing a stable tabletop environment for intimate, one-on-one interaction.
Universal Access: The work is inherently accessible. By prioritizing tabletop height, it ensures that visitors, whether sitting, standing, or using mobility devices, can interact at their own pace. Each case includes integrated high-contrast text and Braille signage. For Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Blind audiences, the haptic nature of the work provides a primary, rather than translated, artistic experience.
Oregon Tour: The project will debut at sensory-inclusive venues such as CymaSpace in Portland and technical gatherings like Teardown. Following the debut, the modular cases will tour regional galleries and libraries across Oregon, targeting areas where non-visual and tactile art is underrepresented.
V. Oregon Impact & Artistic Advancement
This project positions Oregon as a center for haptic art and accessible design innovation, demonstrating that inclusive art can be artistically ambitious, not just accommodating.
Longevity: The touring format creates ongoing engagement opportunities for two years following the initial exhibition.
Flexibility: The low-barrier deployment model ensures maximum community exposure in both formal and informal settings statewide.
Open Source: Technical schematics, firmware, and build guides will be publicly available to contribute to emerging discourse on non-ocular-centric art practices.
Career Pivot: For the lead artist, this project facilitates a transition to a major touring sculptural practice and builds relationships with makerspace and accessibility communities statewide.
VI. Budget Summary (Original Request: $65,000)
- Artist & Professional Collaborator Compensation ($34,500): Lead Artist Stipend ($20,000), Specialized Collaborator Fees ($14,500).
- Hardware, Thermal Systems & Durable Enclosures ($18,500): Thermal & Haptic Actuation ($7,000), Systems Integration ($5,000), Pelican-style cases ($6,500).
- Exhibition, Logistics & Universal Access ($8,750): Oregon Tour & Logistics ($3,250), Documentation ($2,750), Braille & High-Contrast Access ($2,750).
- Administrative & Indirect Costs ($3,250): Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5% to PDX Hackerspace).
VII. Timeline
Sept – Nov 2026: Haptic system prototyping and core electronic architecture.
Dec 2026 – April 2027: Iterative fabrication during Saturday public work parties at PDX Hackerspace.
May – June 2027: Final assembly and behavioral calibration.
July – Aug 2027: Public exhibition debut.
Sept 2027 – Aug 2028: Oregon regional tour with responsive deployment model.
VIII. Why This Matters
Most interactive art relies on screens and buttons. "The Haptic Petting Zoo" offers art understood through the skin. By housing the work in industrial cases, the project acknowledges that for art to reach beyond traditional gallery audiences, it must be as durable as it is responsive. The low-barrier deployment format removes institutional gatekeeping and exposes Oregon audiences to new ways of thinking about touch and emotional connection through technology. This project asks what art becomes when we start from the body rather than the eye.
