Unusual "birds" made of light bulbs and glass: installation "Flylight"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

A mechanical nightingale is not the ultimate dream for those who would be happy to combine nature and technology. Craftsmen from the studio "Drift" in collaboration with talented engineers have created an interesting model of a bird flock. Light bulbs are lit up in glass tubes - these are unusual "birds". The "flock" flies along the installation, reacting to the intrusion of outsiders. However, words cannot explain everything (video attached).

The team of the design studio "Drift" is not averse to experimenting with light. This time, the craftsmen have created a structure of 160 glass tubes. They periodically light up, creating the illusion of movement, and in addition, they react to the approach of the viewer.

Thus, the behavior of a flock of birds is modeled: during the flight, a living cloud shimmers and changes shape - this inspired the studio to create an original art object. This is not to say that the movements of birds are spontaneous, as it seems at first glance. The birds keep a safe distance from each other, they all want to fly in the center of the flock, so to speak, merging with the crowd, and no one wants to take the blow, acting as the leader. Everything is almost like people.

After processing the video of the bird flight, the developers translated the original image into the language of flickering bulbs. Each light is lit separately from its neighbors, but in general the program is written in such a way that the behavior of electronic "birds" is not scheduled and fixed once and for all. Like real birds, the lights seem to be guided by the situation.

Curious what happens if an intruder approaches the flock? The authors of the project tried to simulate this situation.

Special ultrasonic sensors measure the distance from the viewer to the installation (in this the "birds" are more like bats). The "flock" reacts differently depending on how many strangers are gathered and how close they come. This is the most interesting part of the presentation, according to the authors of the idea. After all, it is not known what the “birds” will do: will they scatter or attack the alien in fear?

Work on the Flylight project began back in 2007. Three years were not in vain, and recently the installation was presented at Milan Design Week. Dutch designers (Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta from Drift studio) collaborated on the project with engineers (Klaas van der Molen and Luuk van Laake). The result is admiration for the "birds" making art: now not only "The Finches" delight the audience, but also the unusual "birds" of Dutch craftsmen.