Research

Kristin Lucas

RESEARCH

Flamingos are far out, charismatic other-worldly creatures with a fantasy status that rivals the unicorn. Yet we have a lot in common with flamingos. They are big birds, close to our size. Their average life expectancy ranges from 20-50 years. Raised in captivity, they can live to be 80. They are social beings who enjoy the beach, like to dance, and tend to squabble with one another.

In the US, our relationship to the flamingo is virtual, obsessive and undying. Images of this iconic bird can be found everywhere: on postcards, in fashion, and as ornaments for our lawns. It is difficult to walk down the street without encountering at least one visual representation of a flamingo. This fact makes it all the more difficult to fathom that over 100 years ago, they were hunted to near extinction in our country. Conservationists worldwide for decades have collaborated to facilitate the survival of threatened flamingo species in creative ways and through complex negotiation, and there are many success stories. Some species of flamingos moreso than others have adapted remarkably well to habitat loss, moving into manmade infrastructures such as salt pools and sewage treatment plants. Flamingos need an undisturbed hypersaline wetland ecology in order to forage, nest and breed successfully, and human activity has rendered these areas scarce. As our own population increases we move into these areas and develop them for housing and industry. All six flamingo species have appeared in recent years on the Red List of Threatened Species with differing statuses Least Concern, Near Threatened and Vulnerable.

I've been consulting with conservationists and flamingo experts, internationally, and finding ways to bring their research and methods to a wider audience. I have been particularly inspired by an artificial island constructed by conservationists at a salt plant in the French Mediterranean in 1970 to facilitate the survival of the Greater Flamingo species. Decoy nests were moulded out of mud and placed at the site to attract flamingos during mating season and encourage breeding, and it worked! Over the next 30 years, 150,000 chicks were born here, and the nest making activity continues. This is an example of humans collaborating with another species by adapting to that species needs. An artificial reality was instrumental in producing a new reality.

In my work, I use digital technologies as a means to reimagine, simulate and stage new possibilities. I want to know if a mixed reality experience can influence a new reality where flamingo species can propagate. I currently sponsor twenty wild flamingos through Tour du Valat's flamingo adoption program. I chose to adopt twenty because its the smallest known colony size of flamingos to breed. In exchange for my contribution, I have access to each flamingo's unique biographical and migration data through a collaborative research platform and I am exploring ways to integrate this data into my work. My project "Dance with flARmingos" stages kinship with flamingos from an ethical distance, because it's not very plausible or practical to dance with a flamingo in IRL. To me, this is an exercise in going beyond a human-centered worldview into a more fluid ecological discourse, through the use of technological embodiment.

Found postcard of Caribbean Flamingos.

Observing Greater Flamingos between ages three and six. Parc Ornithologique du Pont de Gau, Arles, France.

Performing like a flamingo while recording motion capture.

Wearing holographic flamingo heads with Thomas Wester (software developer) and Will Pappenheimer, Oregon Story Board, December 2016.

Talk, Engadget Alternate Realities Experience, Ace Theater, Los Angeles, CA.

Volunteering at newborn flamingo ringing operation, August 2017, Salin d'Aigues-Mortes, France. Image courtesy of Tour du Valat.