Performative Media: Crazy Cat Lady

By Natalie Jarrett

Concept

The cost of living is increasing! Birth rates are declining! Soon, the world will be overrun by crazy cat ladies!

However there is no need to fear, because in the near future we will have the digital companion known as Virtual Cat!

Background:

Sarcasm aside, Virtual Cat was devised as an imaginary future solution to address the changing structure of companionship and family formation in the modern world. Across “developed nations” (I don’t love the “developed nation”/”undeveloped nation” binary, but am using it here to make a point), young adults are getting married and having children much later in life than previous generations, if at all. While this is partially due to positive social changes such as more rights and freedoms for women, greater acceptance of different relationship preferences (i.e. same sex couples, lifelong singlehood, etc.), and medical advances, like the birth control pill, which allow people more autonomy over family planning, I can’t help but also grapple with the related changes that are not as positive….

We are living through a cost of living crisis, where Millennials and Gen Z may struggle to meet certain markers of adulthood, like buying a home or having children, simply because they don’t feel they can afford to. We are also more lonely than ever— this can be attributed to modern phenomena such as modern work culture, public infrastructure that encourages individualism (particularly in America), new technology that (like social media), social media-aided political polarization, etc.

As a result, there are already companies developing virtual and AI companions who may serve as an antidote to this pervasive isolation. In the not so near future, we all may be able to completely ‘replace’ human interaction (see the movie Her) with virtual companions— as an HCI student, but also someone who highly regards human relationships, I am unsure how to feel about this development.

On the flip side, there are also many who use our current reality to put down entire groups of people and/or progressive view points. One example is the idea of the aforementioned “crazy cat lady”— an antiquated western stereotype of a single, child-free woman. The “crazy cat lady” may be undesirable, a ‘man-repellent,’ or simply be so overly feminist that she prefers the company of furry friends to a husband and children.

Most recently, the “crazy cat lady” stereotype made headlines, after clips resurfaced of US Vice President Elect, J.D. Vance using it to describe his political opponents. In response, a wave of feminists vocally reclaimed the title— putting the label on t-shirts, sharing images of their cats over social media, and displaying it on campaign materials in support of previous presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

I developed my project as a reaction to this current moment. On one hand, I want it to serve as satire of the misogynistic targeting of “crazy cat ladies.” On the other hand, I also want it to be an eerie example of what could come in the near future.

The actual Virtual Cat itself was inspired by Tamagotchi toys. Tamagotchi were handheld digital pets that were popular in the 90s and early 2000s. They usually appeared in an ‘egg’ shape with a virtual display on which an animated pet would appear— the user could feed, clean, play with the pet, and more:

Project Components:

My project consists of the Arduino 8×8 LED display and the IR Remote+receiver. The remote buttons determine which image/s will subsequently appear on the LED display.

I connected the Arduino code to P5.Js, which displays the cat’s nursery and controls the sound effects. The following are the interactions:

Press 1: Greet Cat

• LED Display: Show cat face
• P5 Display: Show cat paw
• Sound: Meow sound

Press 2: Feed Cat

• LED Display: Show cat getting filled
• P5 Display: Show cat food
• Sound: Munching sound

Press 3: Play with cat

• LED Display: Show cat spinning around
• P5 Display: Show cat toy
• Sound: Cat trilling sound

Press 4: Cuddle with cat

• LED Display: Show heart
• P5 Display: Show yarn
• Sound: Cat purring sound

Press 5: Clean litter box

• LED Display: Show litter box
• P5 Display: Show litter box scoop
• Sound: Scooping sound

Press 6: Put cat to sleep

• LED Display: Show cat sleeping
• P5 Display: Show cat bed
• Sound: Snoring sound

Press play/pause: Turn cat off

• LED Display: Show empty cat face

Performative Aspect:

The user “performs” by having the various interactions with the virtual cat. The Tamagotchi inspired display and with animated objects, give the experience a childlike, video game-esque experience— this is a reference to how child-free adults are often regarded as though they are immature, having not met societal demarcations of adulthood.

The very fact that the cat is a virtual being also creates a sense of separation between the user and the object— thus mirroring the separation of oneself from their own humanity in a world where human kinship is replaced by virtual entities.

The display as a whole is intended to function as though it were a ‘cat nursery.’ The p5.js image consists of a climbing tower, a dresser with a glass of wine, a Taylor Swift poster (a celebrity who has reclaimed the ‘cat lady’ label), and the cat version of Rosie the River poster. The introduction text on the far left of the image (“welcome to Virtual Cat….”) is intended to imply that Virtual Cat is a better alternative to real life companions, because “Virtual Cat can’t leave or die” and exists to “serve ALL of your needs.” Additionally, the LED display of Virtual Cat is “dressed up” in a pink gown originally designed for a human baby, as though the virtual cat functions as a replacement for the real thing. All of the display elements are intended to mimic the stereotypical aesthetic preferences of a crazy cat lady, as they would manifest in this futuristic landscape.

Process

1. LED Display

I started the project by learning to use the Arduino Max 7219 LED display. I practiced using code from the library:

I used an online editor to design my own images on the display:

Then I put the code into Arduino and displayed the image on the LED display:

2. IR Remote

Next, I learned how to connect the IR Remote to the Arduino, then wrote code which triggered images on the LED display according to the button pressed:

3. P5.js

I designed the initially designed the p5.js display in Figma:

I connected the Arduino to p5.js through the serial port connection:

finally, I uploaded images and sound effects that would trigger along with the Arduino display for whichever button was being pressed at a given time.

Final Product