Electronic petting zoo

The electronic petting zoo at ZKM provides an opportunity for preschoolers to gain early experience with technology. Ten robotic guinea pigs that respond to touch and speech are entrusted to the children for a limited time. This allows children to explore a question that will become increasingly important in the future: Is it alive, or is it just pretending?

The robot petting zoo will open to the public free of charge starting November 30, 2025.
Children accompanied by their parents or legal guardians, as well as interested adults, can gain experience with robots there. How do we engage with objects that simulate living beings, and what effect does this have on us? Will we lose the ability to interact with other organisms? 

Opening hours of the publicly accessible part:

• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 2–6 pm
• Saturday, Sunday: 11 am – 6 pm

limited to half an hour at a time

For kindergarten groups participating in the KIT research project only:

• in the morning for one and a half hours

The electronic petting zoo is a project of ZKM | Hertzlab, which conducts artistic research and development at the intersection of art, politics, and technology. Alongside its public use, the electronic petting zoo will be accompanied by a research project at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Kathrin Gerling, Professor of Human-Machine Interaction and Accessibility at the Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics (IAR) in the Faculty of Informatics, we aim to explore how kindergarten age children perceive and distinguish between living animals and artificially animated objects.

These studies are scheduled in the morning for kindergarten groups upon registration. The accompanied visits provide a systematic understanding of early childhood human-machine interactions. To register a kindergarten group, email streichelzoo@zkm.de

The electronic petting zoo contributes to a cultural infrastructure that enables children, regardless of their background or language abilities, to engage with increasingly complex technological advancements. The interplay of artistic practice and scientific research fosters experiential spaces that promote social skills and provide early access to technological, ethical, and social issues.