Better reality: Experimental depression treatment for cephalopods

Daria Okhrimenko

Captive octopuses experience depression. They are bored by safe life, there is no need to fight, hunt, play and investigate. The project is about how humans shared their boredom and depression with other species. Also, it proposes to use modern technologies to improve the quality of life of octopuses in aquariums. The octopus is offered a shelter in the shape of a jug or amphora. (This is the shape preferred by free octopuses, and most often this is the shape that hunters choose for their traps for octopuses.) The shelter has a built-in camera and screen. When the octopus is in the shelter, the projector turns on. It shows a movie specially made for the octopus. Its main characters are the enemies of the octopus (moray eel, predatory fish, sharks, etc.). Thus, once in its shelter, the octopus can be transferred to dreams of danger. The shelter is an upcycled plastic toy well known in many cultures. Is a children’s toy-roly-poly. It is a round-bottomed toy, usually shaped like an egg, that straights up when pushed at an angle. The toy is usually hollow with a weight inside the lower hemisphere.In the project this weight inside is octopus. Or human influence life of non-human agents.

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