“Technology Is a Way to Make the Invisible Visible”: In Conversation With Studio DRIFT

Since founding DRIFT in Amsterdam in 2007, Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta have been investigating the relationship between nature, technology and emotion. The studio’s light-based sculptures and performances explore the invisible systems that connect us to the natural world. Their work has appeared everywhere from the Centre Pompidou and Victoria & Albert Museum to New York’s Central Park, and next, it arrives in the UAE for Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. Presented under the curatorial theme The Light Compass, Manar brings together artists from around the world to explore light as both guide and medium. Set across the mangroves and waterways of Jubail Island, DRIFT’s new installations and drone performance respond directly to the landscape’s elemental forces. Ahead of the exhibition, SC’s Keshav Anand speaks with Gordijn and Nauta.

Keshav Anand: Your works reveal hidden rhythms of nature through technology and many of your installations, from Franchise Freedom to Drift Us in Milan, blur the boundaries between the organic and the engineered. What first drew you to light as a way of expressing those ideas? Do you see technology as a tool to better understand nature, or perhaps as a way to extend it?

DRIFT: Light is a very strong, direct and emotional form of communication – it determines how we experience space and atmosphere without the need for words.

We use light and movement as a language to connect with our audience. Not in a verbal or analytical way, but in a way it is felt through the body, with vibrations, rhythm and frequencies. While we develop technology for our new artworks, we learn to better understand nature. The (im)possibilities present themselves during the prototyping and testing phases and often we are pushed back by the laws of nature. At the same time, nature surprises us and shows us the limitations of our cognitive brain and helps us rely more on our physical presence and other communications through our bodies rather than the thinking head.

Funnily enough, technology shows us how far we’re disconnected from the environment. We look at nature to define technology. Our end goal is not to mimic nature – we’re trying to reawaken our awareness of it. For us, technology is a way to make the invisible visible, to expose the hidden connections between humans, machines and the living world.

KA: There’s a meditative quality to so much of what you create. How conscious are you of designing for emotion, for that physical sense of calm or connection that audiences often describe?

D: We are only happy with a new work of art the moment we feel it. So how it feels is our lead in making decisions. It guides us to create the work. Sometimes it does not turn out the way we hoped and then we need to invest and search until it is right. After many years of finding the emotions and feeling the work in many different settings, we know better what to look for and already early on in a process define what we want to feel, so we are certainly getting better at it. Today, we’re constantly overstimulated, and real moments of rest are rare – but they’re essential. The essence of our work is to lead people and space onto the same frequency, giving them a chance to feel, be present and fully engage with their intuition.

KA: At Manar Abu Dhabi, your works UNFOLD, WHISPERS and the drone performance WIND OF CHANGE will respond to the natural environment of Jubail Island. What appealed to you about working within that landscape of mangroves and waterways?

D: Jubail Island has been shaped by the ongoing interaction between wind and water, natural forces that continually reshape the landscape and sustain life. In recent years, we have become more and more interested in the unique and essential role the wind plays in the evolution of our planet and in maintaining and creating possibilities for land and life to exist. The wind is not just a form of weather, it is a life changer, it is a fertiliser, it is a creator, it is a distributor, a shaker, a life force.

This can already be experienced on Jubail Island without the artworks. So the wind is the lead inspirator for Whispers and Wind of Change. We are also dependent on it for the artworks to work or not. Whispers is designed to move along with the wind, while the drones cannot fly with too much wind. It will be a fine balancing act and out of our hands. Working with wind in this landscape is a reminder that nature’s presence is a constant, ever-shifting part of our daily existence and we should embrace it instead of fighting it.

KA: The theme of this year’s Manar, The Light Compass, explores light as both guide and medium. How do you personally relate to the idea of light as a form of navigation, physical or emotional?

D: Light is definitely an amazing guide, a communicator of emotion, atmosphere and a definer of space. Since light defines how a place feels, it navigates automatically to or away from places. We use this language intuitively every day, all day long.

KA: Your installation UNFOLD transforms visitors’ biometric data into ephemeral flowers and soundscapes. What excites you about using data drawn directly from the human body as artistic material?

D: Unfold draws from real-time human biometric data, meaning it can never produce the same result twice, even for the same person. Our biometric signals are constantly in flux. They reflect ongoing physiological and environmental processes as our bodies respond to the world around us. This variation not only differentiates between visitors, but also captures the uniqueness of a single visitor at different moments.

The work is, at its core, a celebration of ephemerality and the individuality of every experience. At the same time, we are trying to teach ourselves and our audiences to be aware that how they feel does influence the world around them. Feeling good can be the result of a great connection with the environment – or an environment can be great because many people in it feel good. It is very important to understand how humans and environments interact. We are not on our own – everything is in constant interaction. The more we are aware, the better we can use this to reach our full potential.

KA: After nearly two decades working together, how has your partnership evolved? Has your approach to collaboration changed over time?

D: Of course, like everything else, our partnership is in flux. Today we do more things separately, trusting the other rather than deciding every detail together. But new work and important projects we still have to agree on. We have established our ways and approach much more than in the beginning, so we are not seeking direction so much anymore – rather expanding and deepening knowledge and personal approach. Also, our team plays a much bigger role. It is really a team effort to make any project happen.

KA: With your new museum opening soon in Amsterdam, how are you thinking about translating these ephemeral, living works into a more permanent setting?

D: Opening in 2026, the DRIFT Museum in Amsterdam has been a long-term goal – not just to exhibit our work, but to create a space designed specifically for it. We’ve approached the building as a living environment rather than a static gallery. Every detail, from architecture to sound, light and scent, has been considered to create a unified set of immersive artistic experiences.

The museum reflects the core of our practice: connection, transformation and awareness. The infrastructure of the museum will be far more technical than a traditional museum – you can see it as a hybrid between a theatre and a museum. Some works are performances, operated all day long; others are more autonomous moving installations, and certain artworks are influenced and generated by the presence of the audience.

KA: Changing pace for a moment, where do you like to eat when you’re home in Amsterdam?

D: At home, I live on a houseboat in one of the beautiful central canals in Amsterdam. I am surrounded by great specialised shops with very good food. Close by is a wonderful restaurant, Zoldering, which just got a Michelin star; almost next to our studio is Taqueria Bacalar for great Mexican food in a still industrial setting; and for a quite unique Japanese experience, I go to Men Impossible, the vegetarian ramen restaurant managed and cooked by just one man, with very limited seats.



Manar Abu Dhabi will run from 15 November 2025 to 4 January 2026 with new site-specific commissions and immersive artworks installed across the city.



Feature image: I am Storm, 2023, TextielMuseum. Photo by Ronald Smits.