The Pigstrument is a research tool to observe pigs’ potential interest in music and sound. While scientific research is only starting to unravel the possibilities of animal cultures, most of our knowledge in this field concerns domesticated animals. Farm animals are rather considered as food. By getting to know more about farm animals such as pigs we might be abble raise a new appreciation for them. We might be surprised that pigs are also musicians.

Every species develop their own way to understand the world through the perspective offered by their senses. Each animal will then develop a different appreciation for sound, material or even colour. To understand who I was designing for and to research pig's perception I developed a suit to become a pig for a day. The suit is built to recreate a pig’s position (to be comfortable on four legs in straw or mud) and to become a socially functional pig. This experience and several studies with the pigs nurished the creation of a pig specific musical instrument.

© 2015-2017 Arvid Jense and Marie Caye