Colleen Flanigan

Activist, Artist, Change Agent, Connector, Designer, Educator/Teacher, Environmentalist, Global soul, Idea generator, Performer

Colleen Flanigan is a socio-ecological artist. Through visual, performing, and biological arts, she investigates contemporary issues of species endangerment and ecosystem regeneration, specifically coral reefs. Her work encompasses Living Sea Sculptures to restore devastated coral reefs, conversation-catalyzing alter egos, participatory multimedia exhibitions, VR, and more. She is a recipient of a TED fellowship for 2009, and SR TED Fellowship 2010.

climate change and transdisciplinary collaborations. the intersection of art, science, technology, and the environment. Combining aesthetics + function in reefscaping to protect shores, revive bioiversity, and implement adaptive transformation in recovering economies and ecosystems.

invite the artistic method - a combination of sensory vision, playful imagination, and maker intelligence - into global solutions.

Coral restoration, Metal forming, relating to others, sculpture, snail cuisine

My hometown, Monterey, was the home of TED. In 2003 when I returned for a visit, I attended Ecowave, an architectural conference in Oakland, CA. The presentation about mineral accretion technology developed by Wolf Hibertz and Tom Goreau to restore reefs, breakwaters, and fish habitats all over the world, charged me. I connected so strongly to the presentation, I needed to help the corals and learn this electrolytic technology. I got SCUBA certified and headed to Bali to weld structures that would become new reefs. Once I returned to CA and resumed gardening, the enormity of the snail infestation in our gardens hit me. What to do about pests and poisons, food and resources. Thus began Miss Snail Pail. No time like now to eat our garden mollusks and eliminate pesticides whenever possible. As above, so below. Pollutants protect no one, not on land or in sea.

Tango dancing (I love it anyway!)