Training Rats to Use Electronic Devices

This sculpture was exhibited in 2013 in Waterford, an Irish city on the south eastern coast.
This piece explores the research of behavioral and cognitive scientists Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. The work contained three live rats who I trained to use electronic devices installed in the piece, including an electronic door, food and water systems. The sculpture utilized several arduinos, stepper motors and switches. During the exhibition the rats pressed buttons to eat, drink and to get from one space into the next. This sculpture explored embedded habitual behaviors and the concern of ‘the observer and the observed’.

This piece was designed in sketchup and milled out by a cnc machine. I then drilled all the holes bolted it together, installed and programmed the electronics and over the course of four months, I trained the rats to use the electronic buttons. Opening the doors and using the electronic feeding device.
The rats were super smart and really lovely pets.