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. We might be surprised that pigs are also musicians.

Every species develops 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 color. While looking at the available scientific research in Wageningen University, a more profound understanding of pigs was missing. To understand the environment and to research pig’s perception we developed a suit to become a pig for a day. The suit is built to recreate a pig’s position and to become a socially functional pig. This experience and several studies with the pigs nourished the creation of a pig specific musical instrument.

The pigstrument represents the extent of our understanding of pigs sonic interest so far. The object is made for collective play as pigs rarely explore individually, the bells are tuned in a pig specific range while the structure can be tumbled in a world that doesn’t know fixed furniture. All the details of this research can be read on the Pigstrument Research Blog.