A Nosey Monkey
Interactive Installation Submission for Aavistus Festival: Attention, please!
A Nosey Monkey is an interactive installation that invites participants to draw a monkey with their nose. Using a webcam, Raspberry Pi, and Axidraw pen plotter, the system tracks nose movements and translates them into physical drawings.
Participants choose from ten reference images and begin—no preparation, no undo, no erasing. The challenge demands focus on process over product, using body and perception in completely novel ways. You must accept imperfection, commit to your marks, and yes, you will laugh.
Relation to the theme of attention: Technology is increasingly used to capture (hijack?) our attention, but what if instead it could focus it in a completely novel way? In A Nosey Monkey, participants must draw using only their nose. The experience is destabilizing — you must perceive and move your own body in an unfamiliar way, and yet it invites self-exploration: what happens if I move like this? Like this? The installation turns attention inside out: not a resource being mined, but a skill being practiced.
experience of a participant
1
Participant starts and is immediately presented with a monkey reference photo (there are 14 different ones that are randomly presented) on a monitor directly in front of them. A webcam mounted on top tracks their nose.
2
Using a handheld remote to toggle the digital pen up and down, participants draw a monkey using their nose. The canvas can be quickly calibrated to accommodate different heights.
As they draw, participants watch themselves on a monitor alongside a reference photo and canvas where they watch their drawing emerge in real time.
A single drawing averages around two minutes. However, the times vary widely. The fastest took only a few seconds, and the longest took seven minutes and eight seconds.
3
Immediately upon finishing, an Axidraw pen plotter adds their drawing to a gridded record of all previous drawings, retracing the lines in the exact order they were drawn.
A button can then be pressed to draw a small take-home edition on paper. These drawings are quick; they run about ten seconds each.
4
A record of all of the drawings continue throughout the exhibit. When an A3 sheet is finished, it can be hung up and a new one started.
5
Optional depending on exhibition space: A projection of a 30 minute looping video of previous participants drawing in real time can be projected on the wall or displayed on another screen.
THINGS LEARNED FROM WATCHING PEOPLE DRAW WITH THEIR NOSE:
PREVIOUS ITERATIONS
First interaction/prototype: The concept was first tested as part of Creative Cluster Open Studios in October of 2025. During the event, attended by over 1000 people, 81 people drew monkeys with their nose.
Solo Exhibition: Maisunomaisum Project Space in Picoas Metro in Lisboa, Portugal. Over a weekend, invited visitors to draw monkey with nose. Large versions of previous monkey nose drawings hung on the wall and people were invited to color them in while the video of previous nose drawers was projected on back wall.
TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
Components: RaspberryPi 5, presenter remote, num keypad, monitor, webcam, Axidraw pen plotter
Space requirements: small table to hold Axidraw pen plotter (50x40cm), ability to mount monitor around 170cm high
Optional: space to project previous participants drawing monkeys with their nose
Power: only requires three standard plugs
RECORDINGS
The program records three separate videos: a plain webcam capture, an overlay video showing exactly what the participant sees on screen, and a white canvas recording of the monkey drawing being traced in black lines.
At previous exhibits, participants signed GDPR data release forms authorizing use of their recordings for future exhibits and/or social media. Those who declined were still asked to sign, since the program records all participants by default. Anyone who wanted their videos could request them and I would send them by email in the days after the exhibit.
All recording is an optional feature and can be fully disabled. The program can be rewritten to capture no images or video of participants whatsoever, with no effect on functionality.