Philosophy and Mission of Drift Studio

• Cofounded artistic practice called "Drift" to explore mysteries through making, not studying
• Mission: nature-informed design with evolution as process
• Question: why is everything human-made static when nature is never static?
• Goal: capture visceral response humans have to blooming flowers in designed experiences
• Process: try, fail, make thousands of iterations before success

Shylight Project Development (2006-ongoing)

• Original idea: lights flowing from ceiling, opening/closing like flowers to create forest-like presence
• Initial challenges: needed motors, software, tools/knowledge they lacked
• First prototype: 2 weeks kit-bashing vacuum cleaner parts, folding paper patterns
• Local exhibition response: immediate attention, wonder, smiles - "like puppy in room"
• Realization: art could change people's behavior
• Multi-year development process required learning:
  • Control board building
  • Programming software development
  • Organic mechanics with gravity and silk patterns
  • Becoming engineers, programmers, seamstresses, choreographers simultaneously
• Key insight: "It's not about that it moves. It's about how it moves"
• Body responds automatically to movement patterns from nature - rhythms programmed deep within us

Murmuration Project (2008-2018)

• Inspiration: thousands of birds moving together without clear leader, no fighting, following impulses while avoiding each other
• Vision: hundreds of lights flying in sky, responding to each other like birds
• 2008 challenge: drones didn't exist in current form, universities testing early quadcopters
• No available collaborations/technologies for multiple simultaneous sky objects
• "Way too early" but planted seed for future industry
• Software development approach: artists observing swarms for hours vs engineers using scientific data
• Realization: uncontrollable factors influence choices in nature and personal life
• 10 years later: first physical test resulted in no emotional response - "remained blanco"
• Problem: swarm looked "too technical" - fighting nature of technology
• Solution: let nature be teacher, embrace creative process of try/fail/start over

Burning Man 2018 Success

• Drones took off and "it was magic"
• Swarm larger than building murmuring over desert
• Not sculpture or performance but environment impacting audience collectively
• Combined with music, everyone "melted into one energy"
• Emotional response: people crying, powerful experience
• Connected all present elements in one moment
• Felt like "collective memory from deep within DNA"

Static vs Dynamic Environments Philosophy

• Nature: every environment constantly moving, animals present in moment, ready to adapt
• Human environments: static, nothing moves
• Questions posed:
  • Does static environment stop us from moving?
  • Did we unlearn to deal with change?
  • Is this why we stopped noticing environment?
  • Is this why we don't respond to climate change and feel numb?

Concrete Block Demonstration

• Live demonstration with moving concrete block during talk
• Questions to audience: How do you feel about concrete block? Is it necessary to feel anything?
• Point: we're used to static world with concrete as main character
• Challenge: "This shouldn't be our world" - cannot be our future
• Disrupting expectations to create wonder for everyday objects

Final Message and Q&A

• Change is coming, we are not in control, "we are murmuring"
• Personal connection: never felt at home in static world, found animal/plant behavior more logical than people
• Art mission: develop artworks using movement to open people up, make them feel safe embracing change
• Advice for ceding control: "It's an illusion that we have control"
• Bodies made to change but we forgot, built safety structures around us
• Need to learn to go with change as we and world are changing