Transmedia Professor Kristin Lucas launches FLARMINGOS app

Transmedia Professor Kristin Lucas just launched her FLARMINGOS app.

Users tap on their screen to populate their surroundings with life-size augmented reality flamingos. Dance with FLARMINGOS in interspecies solidarity to original flamingo-inspired music. Pick up flamingo dance moves researched by scientists, snap a photo, and adopt a flamingo through a wetlands conservation initiative.

FLARMINGOS is a project Lucas produced through a Tech Residency at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and made in partnership with Tour du Valat research institute in Arles, France. FLARMINGOS are virtual representations of wild flamingos the artist has adopted. They are animated by human motion capture and a dynamic flocking algorithm that influences their collective behavior.

Lucas’ recent projects exist in a variety of forms, including video animation, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality. She observes, documents, 3d models, rigs and animates the likeness of species she encounters as an Artist in Residence in Everglades. Though kitschy, gorgeous and playfully flamboyant, Lucas’ work is always well-researched. She draws from her extensive conversations with flamingo experts and conservationists to shift this traditionally human-centered worldview in favor of a more ethical interspecies kinship.