DRIFT

About the lecture  
The presence or absence of light determines the atmosphere in a space. The presence or absence of motion determines the energy in a space. Throughout the last 18 years, artists and designers Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn, working under the name DRIFT, have been developing room filling artworks and interactive installations using light and motion as the key factors with the aim to change the behavior and emotions of people in the space. Working with architects, museums and private clients all over the world, we learned to understand how nature uses the same factors to align species and create strong ecosystems. As artists we actively search for this wisdom in nature and deliberately use these principles in our installations to tune people into the same frequency. Working on bringing people and environments together and uniting energies to create healthy and productive places.  

Through examples of different projects, Lonneke will elaborate on the creative and innovative processes that fuel their creations and their take on how healthy energetic people that are aligned can be the force to build a sustainable world. The power of communicating on an intuitive level through light and movement. And how technology can help to achieve living environments that activate peoples’ brains. 

Bio 
Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn (1980) and Ralph Nauta (1978) founded DRIFT in 2007. With a multidisciplinary team of 65, 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 artworks 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. 

All individual artworks have the ability to transform spaces. The confined parameters of a museum or a gallery do not always do justice to a body of work, rather it often comes to its potential in the public sphere or through architecture. DRIFT brings people, space and nature on to the same frequency, uniting audiences with experiences that inspire a reconnection to our planet. 

DRIFT has realized numerous exhibitions and projects around the world. Their work has been exhibited at Biennale di Venezia (2015, 2022); The Shed (2021); Pace Gallery (2021), The Stedelijk Museum (2018); Victoria & Albert Museum (2009, 2015); Met Museum (2010); amongst others. Their work is held in the permanent collections of the LACMA; Rijksmuseum; SFMOMA; Stedelijk Museum; and Victoria & Albert Museum. In 2017, DRIFT was awarded Dezeen Designer of the Year.