Virtual Herbaria XR - XR²C² 

Artist Residency during summer 2023 at the Extended Reality Research and Creative Center XR²C² in Cannes, French Riviera.



Virtual Herbaria AR app designed for the French Riviera: Virtual Herbaria questions the way we visualize and utilize large data sets, archives, and libraries. With today’s technologies we have access to an infinite amount of online data, and years of archives and knowledge at our fingertips. Algorithms that can sort, search through, and identify hierarchy in that data are becoming extremely valuable because they are able to tell apart correct information from construct. We are putting our preconceived understanding of nature and technology under scrutiny and look together ahead at more sustainable futures. Virtual Herbaria revives the regional flora and spatializes the data through colorful three dimensional digital plants that will be digitally augmented all around the French Riviera. Turning the coast into an immersive experience of flourishing flowers that visitors can experience through their phone by downloading the app.


This is what a Herbarium looks like and the map of the different flowers that were 3D scanned and 3D modelled.


During the residency Folly Feast LAb developed an AR app and a VR Game.






https://xr2c2.univ-cotedazur.fr/residences-dartistes-et-phd-lab/residences-et-projets-en-cours
https://xr2c2.univ-cotedazur.fr/virtual-herbarium-sortie-de-residence-de-yara-feghali
Folly Feast Lab project - 2023 - Cannes - France.

Virtual Herbaria XR - Cal Arts Earth Festival Visions 2030 FUTURING - 2023

Folly Feast Lab is exhibiting Virtual Herbaria AR app for Android and Apple store site specific to the Cal Arts Campus - 2023.





Virtual Herbaria AR app designed for the Cal Arts campus in California: Virtual Herbaria questions the way we visualize and utilize large data sets, archives, and libraries. With today’s technologies we have access to an infinite amount of online data, and years of archives and knowledge at our fingertips. Algorithms that can sort, search through, and identify hierarchy in that data are becoming extremely valuable because they are able to tell apart correct information from construct. We are putting our preconceived understanding of nature and technology under scrutiny and look together ahead at more sustainable futures. Virtual Herbaria revives the regional flora and spatializes the data through colorful three dimensional digital plants that will be digitally augmented all around Cal Arts. Turning the campus into an immersive experience of flourishing flowers that visitors can experience through their phone by downloading the app.


https://youtube.com/shorts/VNNXM0dX2m8?feature=share

Located at the iconic CalArts in northern #LosAngeles, this Festival of Eco-Consciousness will offer immersive environments for you to dream up wildly positive #futures. Imagine new possibilities and transform your #consciousness — together we can shift the tone of climate conversation toward Earth optimism!⁠

Learn more at EarthEditionFestival.LA 🌎🌍🌏 ⁠

#Visions2030 #Visions2030EarthEdition #EcoConsciousness #EarthEdition #EcoFuture #DreamForward #CollectiveFuture #ClimateWeek #Innovation #CalArts #LA #LAEvents #LAFestival #LACommunity #LAArt #LAArtists #LAMusic #LAExhibition #Valencia

https://www.eartheditionfestival.la/futuring
https://www.eartheditionfestival.la/futuring-1/folly-feast-lab-(viviane-el-kmati-and-yara-feghali)-
https://calarts.edu/life-at-calarts/the-center-for-life-and-work/events/visions2030
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/09/20/earth-edition-environmental-art-festival-calarts
Folly Feast Lab AR application- 2023 - Cal Arts - Valencia - California.

Be.longing XR

Virtual Reality experience - Amal’s journey into LA - work by Folly Feast Lab

Be.Longing XR is a filmic road diary seen through the eyes of Amal, an immigrant woman from Beirut who just Landed in Los Angeles. We join her on a ride through a fictitious reconstructed residential streetscape as she searches for signs of her queer community on the houses’ front yards, porches, and windows. Be.Longing XR documents over 35 residential houses in over 18 different residential neighborhoods in L.A. during the pandemic summer of 2019. The film is recorded from the window of a car while the radio is playing Arabic music. Get taken on this journey and start the game of looking for queer subculture symbols all around you.





This immersive experience puts visitors as active protagonists to challenge their view of their city and look at it through a queer narrative point of view.




This multimedia artwork utilizes photogrammetry and artificial intelligence to construct a virtual streetscape that explores the multifaceted nature of lesbian identity. The centerpiece consists of a series of meticulously captured houses, each digitally rendered through the process of photogrammetry. These houses, carefully edited to create a cohesive digital block, serve as symbolic representations of various lesbian subcultures – butch, femme, lipstick lesbian, etc.

The artistic merit lies not only in the creation of these digital structures, but also in the seamless integration that transcends physical limitations. Imagine sprawling mansions existing in harmony with quaint bungalows, their scales and lighting adjusted to create a believable streetscape. A virtual camera then traverses this constructed environment, mimicking the experience of a car driving by, capturing the essence of the scene.

The power of technology extends beyond mere aesthetics. Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in assigning each house to a specific subculture. This categorization is then visually reinforced through the placement of carefully chosen objects – toolboxes for the butch identity, cats with beanies for studs, and strategically placed U-hauls and golden retrievers.



The narrative, interwoven with the digital streetscape, introduces Amal, an immigrant woman navigating the initial days of her arrival in Los Angeles. The sprawl of suburbia initially evokes a sense of alienation, a feeling mirrored by the physical separation of the houses. However, a single queer flag displayed in a yard serves as a turning point. This solitary symbol sparks a journey of discovery, transforming Amal's cab ride into a quest to identify further markers of her community within the urban landscape. Each subsequent flag, each symbol glimpsed through a window, becomes a beacon of hope, a testament to the existence of a place where she can belong.

This artwork transcends the boundaries of physical space, existing within the digital realm. It serves as a powerful meditation on the multifaceted nature of lesbian identity, celebrating its diversity and the yearning for connection. The meticulous attention to detail within the digital street reflects the richness and complexity of these subcultures, while Amal's narrative mirrors the search for belonging within this virtual world. By merging the physical and digital, the artwork offers a profound exploration of identity and community.



Project as part of group exhibition for Culture HUB LA and Re-Fest, and was shown at ADAF the Athens Digital Art Festival in 2023, and at Brea Gallery in Los Angeles in 2023. Work by Folly Feast Lab

Kite Parade

Queer social VR Game - A kite Sand-Surfing VR game - a Folly Feast Lab project.


Queer communities inhabit marginal and forgotten spaces, that are anonymous, invisible, and non-mainstream areas. Kite Parade brings the queer communities out to California Coastline’s beaches, paints them with objects and memories and celebrates queerness at the pier with the Kite Festival. 




Come plant and paint California’s Coastline with your queer memories, and join the queer social VR Kite Festival at the Pier.





Folly Feast Lab project - 2022 - Santa Monica.

Mediterranean Sea Diaries


Interactive VR Forum - open world game -
Exploring the Anthropocene’s repercussions on the Mediterranean coast.

A Folly Feast Lab project.






Mediterranean Sea Diaries is a research and design project that imagines the future of spaces like landfills and e-waste lands as a result of overproduction. These spaces are generated as a cautionary tale of the Mediterranean coast near future and are based on recent events around the politics of waste management leading Lebanon to dump its waste in the Mediterranean Sea.




Work by Folly Feast Lab.

Yara Feghali / 2024