Critter Connect

What is the Critter Connect?

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, and sensory-rich interactions.

Figure 1: Critter Connect: a new wearable device for human, animal, technology and ecosystem entanglement.

Critter Connect in Case Study 3

Critter Connect aligns seamlessly with LoGaCulture’s mission to explore multispecies interactions within cultural and natural heritage sites through speculative, participatory, and transmedia experiences. As a wearable device that facilitates embodied, sensory-rich engagements with the More-than-Human (MtH) world, Critter Connect challenges conventional human-centered heritage narratives by positioning nonhuman entities as active participants in heritage interpretation.

The project’s emphasis on geolocated, sensory-driven interactions resonates with LoGaCulture’s exploration of how digital and game-based methodologies can reconfigure human-nature relationships. By embedding MtH perspectives into wearable technology, Critter Connect extends LoGaCulture’s commitment to fostering intimate, place-based engagements that reframe how users perceive and interact with the landscapes and species of the Tagus estuary and beyond.

Moreover, Critter Connect contributes to LoGaCulture’s broader framework by offering an alternative to ocular-centric heritage interpretation, integrating haptic, auditory, and embodied modes of sensing. The device’s role in attuning users to species’ contact zones through non-invasive, interactive cues exemplifies how technology can mediate speculative heritage experiences that foreground multispecies entanglements. This approach not only supports LoGaCulture’s focus on natureculture heritage but also extends its engagement strategies by bridging digital storytelling with tangible, wearable interactions.

Through its second prototype tailored for the Madeiran natural context, Critter Connect expands LoGaCulture’s exploration of local ecosystems, reinforcing the project’s emphasis on designing participatory, site-specific interventions that encourage humans to rethink their role within multispecies environments.

How to use the Critter Connect

Critter Connect is a compact arm wearable designed to minimise its impact on visitors’ walks and their experience of nature. Its waterproof materials, discreet green colour, and simplicity of use, with only two buttons, ensure wearability in any weather and environment. The device’s design moves away from traditional technological cues (such as screens and vibrations), allowing the wearer to fully immerse themselves in the Levadas’ environment.

Figure 2: The Critter Connect user journey.

Connected through GPS to a static database of species geolocation based on scientists’ and volunteers’ observations, the device leverages diverse sensory stimuli (touch and vision) to let the wearer know they’ve entered another being’s area or ‘contact zone’. Tactile stimuli are tailored to each species to deepen the visitors’ connection with that specific animal. Once in a contact zone, a speaker activates, allowing the wearer to play the species call by pressing a button to engage in multispecies dialogues.

Figure 3: Design overview of the Critter Connect first prototype.

More specifically, the device engages with two local species: the Pigeon Trocaz, an endangered bird essential to the survival of the island’s rich ecosystem as it disseminates the seeds of Laurisilva’s trees, and the Perez Frog, an invasive species introduced by humans to the island in the 19th century. The device’s emphasis on sensory-rich multispecies interactions (through sound, touch, and vision) allows visitors to experience nature from different perspectives, fostering a deeper sense of connection with a specific ecosystem.

Adapt and Use Critter Connect

In this section, we share a diagram of all electronic components used in Critter Connect so you can build your own: