Every year, TED hosts a conference in Vancouver where they invite prominent experts across a wide range of fields to share their ideas with the world. As a viral video phenomenon, TED attracts a growing influential audience. This year TED invited DRIFT’s Lonneke Gordijn to participate in their yearly program to talk about the development process of their studio’s artworks.
The New York City Ballet presents their tenth annual Art Series, where they invite a contemporary artist to create a site-specific work which will be displayed during their winter performance season. This year it is DRIFT’s signature work Shylight that will be on view in the lobby from January 17 through February 26, with open hours for the general public as well.
Coded Nature explores the relationship between humans, nature and technology. An autonomously flying swarm of DRIFT blocks responds to the movement of the audience, reflecting the endless opportunities of creation in nature as well as a continuous flow of change. The work was unveiled and shown to public for the first time, at Art Basel Miami 2022.
The work illustrates how humans strive to live autonomously within sets of societal rules and conventions, and challenges the human concept of freedom. If every bird were to operate on its own, the ultimate result would be chaos. Just like birds, people find safety in being part of a group. As such, their actions must be aligned with collective mechanisms and are compelled to follow a set of rules based on which society functions. If one chooses complete individual freedom over societal effort then one can only operate aside from it, which makes us question: What is the perfect balance between the two? Is freedom an illusion?
This year Art Basel Miami celebrated it’s 20th anniversary. For this special occasion, DRIFT’s award winning drone sculpture Franchise Freedom returned to the city after it premiered there in 2017. In collaboration with Art Basel, the artwork flew above the Convention Center for two evenings in a row, both visitors from the art fair and citizens enjoyed the memorable performance.
19 NOV 2022 — 30 APR 2023
DRIFT’s exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is now on view till April 2023. In this exhibition are several artworks of DRIFT exhibited, with our signature work Fragile Future as the center piece. The exhibition also explores how our artworks come to life. Drawings, models, prototypes, and other documents of the studio’s experiments offer glimpses of the research and engineering that lie behind the apparent effortlessness of our experiential creations. Go check it out for your self.
For Burning Man, DRIFT created a special performance in collaboration with creative friends.
The show was a a story on Man vs. Machine
Check out the video and see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brJW7ydT_rs
DRIFT’s Lonneke Gordijn participated in a workshop that brought together prominent scientists and artists to discuss where they stand on the integration of empathy and intuition in science and art. An intriguing conversation close to our hearts. Together they created new work for Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden which will be on view from 14 October 2022 until 15 January 2023.
Read more here.
Together with Phaidon we present Drift: Choreographing the Future, the first book to explore the extraordinary world of DRIFT. Over the course of more than a decade, our uniquely immersive projects have been exhibited all over the world, offering meditative and poetic experiences to our audiences and addressing themes such as the relationship between the individual and the collective and the impact of technology in our society. This is the first book to explore our extraordinary world in depth.
Conceived in close collaboration with Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, this book spans 15 years of DRIFT’s practice. 240 coloured illustrations, along with writings on and by DRIFT, provide an unparalleled overview of our remarkable output. Featured projects include Franchise Freedom (2017), which saw the murmuration patterns of starlings transformed into an aerial performance by drones; Shylight (2006), kinetic lights that fold and bloom like flowers, mimicking the natural mechanism which allows certain plaints to open in daylight and close at night; and Drifter (2017), a concrete block capable of levitating in space. Our book’s publication is timed to coincide with a string of new projects and exhibitions opening in 2022.
Pre-order now: DRIFT, Choreographing the Future. Our book will ship from October 13th, 2022.
Format; Hardback
Size; 290 x 214 mm (11 3/8 x 8 3/8 in)
Pages; 240 pp
Illustrations; 200 illustrations
ISBN; 9781838661717
DRIFT and Avant Arte collaborate for a second time to create a unique limited edition, Sine inspired by the rhythms of the natural world
6 July 2022, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: DRIFT announces its second collaboration with Avant Arte, the creative marketplace that makes discovering and owning art radically more accessible, to create a unique limited edition, Sine, that echoes the rhythms of the natural world from the frequency of waves breaking on a shore, wind whistling through the trees to the simple act of breathing.
An edition of 50 spatial sculptures, Sine is made up of a delicate pair of glass wings that perform what we describe as the ‘natural rhythm’. The up and down swinging of the individual elements is triggered by weights that glide back and forth. These are synchronised by a computer and in turn the movement seeks to synchronise onlookers, unifying them through simple motion. By unifying those around the artwork, we believe the work can have a positive impact on one’s state of being, connecting you to the people and world around you.
Lonneke Gordijn said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Avant Arte again to create this edition for collectors to experience everyday. For us, Sine motion is the mother of all motion. We believe everything in this world has its own frequency which consists of Sine movements. Our goal with all our work is always to synchronise all movements. So our mission is towards balance, towards synchronisation, to get everyone on the same page. Because only when everything is in line will you move forward in life. And that’s basically the basic law of everything.”
Sine will be installed for one time only at Fosbury & Sons, Amsterdam between Friday 29 July and Sunday 31 July, uniting all 50 editions before they find their permanent residence in collector’s homes. The installation will be open to the public and available to view free of charge.
Details:
Edition of 50
€7,500
Dimensions: 38 x 76 x 7.6cm
Medium: Materials: steel, brass, nylon, metal, LEDs and glass
Framing: The sculpture comes framed and ready to display.
To find out more about the edition see Avant Arte’s website.
All 50 editions of Sine will be available to view Friday 29 July to Sunday 31 July 2022.
Location: Fosbury & Sons, Prinsengracht 769, 1017 JZ Amsterdam
Admission: Free of charge
Hours: 12:00am to 5:00pm, Friday 29 July through to Sunday 31 July 2022.
Further dates of the light installation »Breaking Waves« have to be cancelled.
Aggressive disruption of the airspace as part of the premiere.
Hamburg, April 29, 2022: Unfortunately, the performances of the light installation “Breaking Waves” announced for today, Saturday and Sunday have to be canceled at short notice in coordination with the aviation security authorities of Hamburg and Lower Saxony. During the dress rehearsal and the premiere on Thursday, the art event was massively disrupted by foreign high-speed drones. There have been several collisions and, as a result, numerous drones have crashed. According to information from the aviation security authorities, there have never been disruptions to air traffic of this intensity and aggressiveness in Germany. This requires a reassessment of the security situation. Since it cannot be ruled out that such crimes will again be committed by anonymous drone pilots today and in the following days, it is irresponsible to continue »Breaking Waves« in order to protect viewers and employees. Those responsible at the Elbphilharmonie and the artists from DRIFT are sad and frustrated that they have to cancel the repetitions of the light installation, which thrilled thousands of viewers at the premiere.
DRIFT and Centre Pompidou come together for the “Worlds of Networks”; an exhibition that brings together sixty artists, architects and designers. World of Networks understands that more than ever, in the internet age, the network is at the heart of technological change and societal issues: surveillance, atomization of the individual, actor-network and the network of living things.
Flylight is presented at Centre Pompidou, the ground-breaking artwork dedicated to presenting, and engaging audiences with experiential art.
From January 7 to May 8, DRIFT will transform 350 square meters of MK&G Hamburg into a transformative space with 3 kinetic installations that allow visitors to experience the deep connection between humans and nature. The exhibition marks DRIFT’s largest presentation in Germany to date.
Read the full press release here
