In celebration of Art Basel Miami Beach’s 20th Anniversary, the artist studio Drift is bringing back its award winning drone sculpture “Franchise Freedom” to Miami Beach. The art piece, which premiered in Miami during Art Basel in 2017, returns to the city for a special performance over the roof of the convention centre. Hundreds of luminous drones fly from the Miami convention centre on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The idea behind Franchise Freedom according to Drift: “For Franchise Freedom we studied the pattern of a flying swarm of birds, as they questioned the human concept of freedom and social construct. We imitated this behaviour in our work which consists of a flying swarm of hundreds of illuminated drones, controlled by machine learning systems and artificial Intelligence. The essence of the work is to establish a moment of emotional connection between the audience, the environment, the music and the drones.”

Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn (1980) and Ralph Nauta (1978) founded Drift in 2007. With a multi-disciplinary team of 64, they work on experiential sculptures, installations and performances.

Studio Drift: Franchise Freedom / Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Aerial performance, Miami Beach, November 29, 2022.

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