The Monkey Business is an exploratory design research project that investigates empathy across species through innovative experiential tools. Conceived as part of a design coursework module, the project sought to bridge the perceptual and behavioral gap between humans and Rhesus macaques - intelligent, adaptive, and often misunderstood urban cohabitants. It reframed interspecies conflict as a design opportunity, promoting coexistence through mutual understanding and system-level empathy-building interventions.
Project at a Glance
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Problem & Context
Urban India is witnessing increasing human-monkey conflict as cities expand into natural habitats. Monkeys adapt quickly, but humans often perceive them as invasive or disruptive rather than as intelligent cohabitants navigation shared spaces.
The real breakdown isn't ecological alone - it's perceptual. Human-centric thinking limits empathy, making coexistence difficult.
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Solution & Iteration
The Monkey Business is an empathy-driven design toolkit that lets designers experience urban spaces from the perspective of Rhesus macaques.
Through physical simulations, behavioral prompts, and scenario-based exercises, the toolkit recreates how monkeys perceive risk, resources, and territory. By shifting the point of view, the project reframes interspecies conflict as a design problem rooted in shared environments rather than control.
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Impact & Outcome
The project expands design thinking beyond humans, helping designers question anthropocentric bias and consider non-human stakeholders in urban systems.
By turning empathy into a tangible experience, The Monkey Business encourages more thoughtful, coexistence-oriented interventions and offers a reusable framework for future interspecies design explorations.
Problem Space
Urban environments in India have long been sites of human-monkey conflict due to shrinking habitats and increasing urban sprawl. Monkeys, compelled to adapt, navigate cities like alternative forests - raiding bins, climbing structures, and mimicking human behavior. The project’s team recognized that the issue wasn’t merely ecological or behavioral but rooted in perception; humans tend to anthropocentrically label other species as invasive or “wild.” The research recontextualized these animals not as nuisances but as complex urban citizens competing for shared resources.
Scope of the Project
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Empathy through Simulation
Developing a toolkit that enables designers to step into the perceptual world of Rhesus macaques through physical, sensory, and behavioral simulations.
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Ecological Awareness & Biodiversity
Highlighting monkeys’ ecological roles as seed dispersers and biodiversity agents while advocating sustainable urban systems.
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Human-Monkey Coexistence
Addressing urban conflicts between humans and monkeys by reframing them as design challenges rooted in shared spaces and mutual survival.
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Interspecies Education & Future Expansion
Establishing a design framework that fosters empathy beyond humans, adaptable to other non-human species in future applications.
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Behavioral Design & Conditioning
Creating prototypes like the Monkey Waste-to-Food Vending Machine to promote eco-positive behavior through interspecies collaboration.
Approach
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Encounter
Understanding personal antipathy and stereotypes towards urban wildlife.
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Territoriality
Mapping territorial overlaps and human-wildlife negotiation zones.
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Biodiversity
Investigating the monkey’s ecological contribution as a seed disperser and ecosystem engineer.
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Empathy
Simulating the life of a monkey through reflective exercises and embodied roleplay.
Building Empathy
Building empathy involved observing and documenting real monkey behaviors to interpret their emotions, motivations, and survival choices. The storyboard and video helped translate these insights into immersive experiences, allowing designers to feel and respond as a monkey would in similar contexts.
Naturalistic Observation
Want a respite from summer heat
Observes humans and learns from that
Tasting out food, but not liking it
Eating peacefully after being provided food
Storyboard
Interspecies Design Proposed Framework to Generate Empathy
The Interspecies Design Toolkit
Developed as the experiential arm of the project, “The Monkey Business” toolkit guided human participants through layered empathy exercises.
Physical Simulators
Wearable extensions that mimicked a monkey’s dexterity limits (e.g., fingerless gloves, restricted vision bands).
Social Behavior Prompts
Scripts exploring grooming, foraging, or threat response.
Game Scenarios
Interactive prompts placing users in simulated moral and survival dilemmas (“You hear a rustle in the bushes, what do you do?”).
Combining all three: