For the 59th Venice Biennale, DRIFT performs their first-ever indoor aerial drone performance, called Social Sacrifice. This new performance is inspired by the collective intelligence and cooperation exhibited by schools of fish when facing a predator and highlights the way this kind of adaptive swarming behaviour leads to successful problem solving in uncertain circumstances.
Co-commissioned by Aorist and TBA21-Academy’s Ocean Space, Social Sacrifice animates a flying school of A.I. fish that “swim” through the Church of San Lorenzo every evening from April 20 till May 1, 2022. Flying overhead above the audience, the drones dance and battle one another, their movements accentuated through light and colour. Each drone has its own light source, with the “predator drones” represented in red and the school of fish represented in white, and the intensity of these lights are influenced by the density of the group—brighter and stronger when closer together, fainter and weaker when more diffuse. The performance soundtrack is composed by artist and musician Don Diablo.
Produced by Drone Stories and SKYMAGIC
Commissioned by Aorist. Book tickets; link.