Flintus Lotus

Public space design: entry for Flint's Flat Lot design competition.

Year: 2013

Team: Chad Connery and Anca Matyiku

Flintus Lotus are a mutant specimen of the siphonophora order, assembled in a colony of eight that wish to inhabit Flint’s Flat Lot site. The possible progeny of the love between fringed orchid and jellyfish, the Flintus Lotus is a trembling bouquet of thin muscle-ribs and translucent scales. Its abdomen is anchored in place by a large sand filled sac(k), while its loose end is prevented from bobbing by a series of crutch-like Unipedes, biting at its ribs. The Unipedes allow the Flintus to tremble and ruffle its scales when shaken by curious children and playful grown-ups.

The specimens have the ability to adapt to new situations in the hope that they will remain Flint’s citizens and travel to future events in the city.  Each specimen is slightly smaller than the size of a parking stall. With the help of a conventional pallet jack, one or two humans are able to re-arrange the “siphonophore” in a variety of configurations, depending on the whimsy of the particular event to be hosted amongst the colony’s drooping boughs.