© Studio Drift : Photography: James Harris

Following last year’s  premiere at Art Basel Miami Beach, Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, the artists behind Amsterdam-based Studio Drift, are bringing their performative artwork home. Coinciding with the duo’s current retrospective at Stedelijk Museum in the Dutch capital, it’s a performance that’s accessible for everyone. It’s entitled Franchise Freedom, the performative artwork comprises of 300 flying luminous drones on the Intel Shooting Star platform, and it’ll be on view for three days during sunset on Aug 10 -12 over Amsterdam‘s IJ river. Interestingly, Gordijn and Nauta have been studying the flight patterns of starlings moving in a swarm. Fascinated by the movements whereby freedom and at the same time limitations of the individual birds within the swarm alternate, the artists developed an algorithm that can make autonomous choices. In this way, they could eventually imitate these movements by translating them into software that was specially developed by Intel and is embedded in the luminous drones.

Recommended viewing locations: Haparandam (Houthavens) and NDSM Wharf (Amsterdam Noord).

© Studio Drift : Photography: James Harris