Ralph Nauta codes emotion, then sets it loose in the sky. As co-founder of Studio Drift, together with Lonneke Gordijn, he’s spent 20 years composing kinetic poetry out of drones, algorithms, and light. His work isn’t about tech for tech’s sake. It’s a high-voltage remix of science, nature, and wonder, engineered to stop you mid-scroll and mid-thought. With Franchise Freedom, he unleashed 1,000 autonomous drones over Central Park, mimicking the flight patterns of starlings: no logos, no narration, just raw motion, pulsing across the skyline in silence. The project drew 30,000 people to the park and garnered 10 million online impressions. But more than that, it flipped the script on public art, creating a living cloud of code above Manhattan. Then there was Burning Man. In 2023, Ralph dropped a drone-driven elegy for endangered species onto the Nevada desert — a glowing constellation that blurred the lines between activism, installation, and collective ritual. It was ephemeral. It was unmissable. But if you did miss it, the duo have been heads-down on their latest project, the DRIFT museum, set to open later this year in Amsterdam.
