Studio Drift: Advancing AI by mimicking nature……
Anne recently featured Leonardo Da Vinci and his dream of human flight. He studied the wind and how it helped to propel ships and birds. His sketched models turned out to be suprisingly close to the principles of flight even today.
It made me remember that back in July 2021, we looked at design firm Studio Drift, who also paid tribute to human flight with a glass installation they built on the island of Murano, in Venice, Italy, for the 2015 Biennale. It featured glass rods moving to imitate the action of wings in flight. Click here if you missed it.
I was keen to see what else Studio Drift has created.......
Their website1 describes Studio Drift as follows:
"Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn (1980) and Ralph Nauta (1978) founded DRIFT in 2007. With a multi-disciplinary team of 64, a studio in Amsterdam and New York, they work on experiential sculptures, installations and performances”
"DRIFT manifests the phenomena and hidden properties of nature with the use of technology in order to learn from the Earth’s underlying mechanisms and to re-establish our connection to it.”
"With both depth and simplicity, DRIFT’s works of art illuminate parallels between man-made and natural structures through deconstructive, interactive, and innovative processes. The artists raise fundamental questions about what life is and explore a positive scenario for the future.”
DRIFT has created exhibitions and (public) projects around the world, both as temporary works and permanent exhibits in various prestigious museums. (You can read their full bio by clicking here.
The following short video provides a short summary of some other creations of Studio Drift. The video might show as unavailable on your device but we have tested it out and it does still upload for you to view.
But I think the first project they received world wide recognition for, back in 2014, called Shylight, is still one of the most beautiful.
The following 5.59 minute video is well worth watching to understand the painstaking work and detailed process that Studio Drift put in place to mimic the beauty of movement in nature, in this case, unfurling flowers. A computer-driven pulley system is responsible for lifting and dropping the lamps, a spring mechanism allows the delicate silk petals to ‘bloom,’ and pre-programmed behaviours simulate autonomy.2
The inspiring final result is unveiled at the 4.30 minute mark of the video……
Another similar project is called Meadow, and this 2.33 minute video is also worth watching to appreciate their achievement - the beauty of unfurling flowers in colour......
Their intricate work in trying to understand the workings of nature is helping to further the development and applications for Artificial Intelligence (AI). You might care to browse through more of the many other diverse projects by Studio Drift, by clicking the bookmark below:
Footnotes
- studiodrift.com
- friends of friends.com