1,000 Drones Light Up Sky Over Central Park

In a spectacular community event, drones lit up the sky above New York’s Central Park

Amsterdam’s Studio Drift and Drone Stories put on the display titled “Franchise Freedom,” which company founders said was the largest art project in Central Park since the gates were installed in 2005.

There were three performances Saturday night of the aerial drone performance designed to explore the “relationship between man, nature and technology,” according to Drift. 

Drift said to create the performance it translated more than 10 years of “starling flight behavior research into an especially developed software that is embedded in the drones.”

“The parameters in the algorithm used are choreographed by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, founders of Drift and co-developer Lucas van Oostrum, in order to channel the emotional impact of the performance.

Drift called “Franchise Freedom” a poetic illustration of how “humans strive to live autonomously within a society defined by rules and conventions. Although the drone patterns appear random and the swarm reminds us of freedom, the behavior of these birds is completely orchestrated and subject to many rules and survival instincts.”

In 2019, Studio Drift offered a preview of “Franchise Freedom” and some insight into its development.

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