Nature, Art and Magical Blocks of Flying Concrete | Lonneke Gordijn | TED

When I look at a flower,

I don't see just a beautiful object to put in a vase.

I see an intelligent organism that is not still.

Perhaps it just opened its petals to discover light for the first time.

Or maybe it's at the end of its period,

desperately blossoming to attract a bee and get pollinated.

As humans, we innately respond to the blooming of a flower.

But how do we design this exact feeling?

How can we capture this visceral response in people?

I co-founded an artistic practice to tap the mysteries of this world,

not by studying, but by making.

We called our studio "Drift"

and wondered why almost everything that is made by people is static.

Because nature is never static.

Our mission is informed by nature,

and evolution is our process.

That means we try and fail,

make thousands of iterations before we succeed.

In 2006,

when the studio was still the two of us,

I had an idea.

How cool would it be

if suddenly little lights would flow down from the ceiling,

opening and closing, interacting with us like flowers?

I was longing for this feeling to feel present and in the moment,

the way how I feel when I walk in a forest.

The idea was maybe impractical

because to make movement, we probably had to work with motors and software

and other tools and knowledge that we didn't have.

So we decided to start this project.

In two weeks of kit bashing vacuum cleaner parts

and folding paper patterns,

we have barely something moving, but it was our deadline,

so we brought our drafts to a local exhibition.

To our surprise,

the shy opening and proudly descending creatures

immediately drew attention.

People responded to them with wonder and a smile on their face,

almost as if there was a puppy in the room.

And we thought it was quite cool

that with our art we could change people’s behavior.

So we decided to explore this further.

Project "Shylight" became a process of years.

Coming from art school with no technical background,

we had to learn to build control boards, develop programming software,

make mechanics move in an organic way with gravity and complex silk patterns.

Basically, we had to become engineers, programmers,

seamstresses and choreographers at the same time.

But how do you express a motion

between an acceleration factor and a coordinate?

Here is where we learned the most important thing.

(Music)

It's not about that it moves.

It's about how it moves.

Our body responds automatically to certain types of movement,

movement we already know from nature.

Rhythms that are programmed deep within us.

We are designed to be in a constant

and dynamic interaction with our environment.

There are numerous phenomena in nature that are super inspiring.

But perhaps the most intriguing

and relevant animal behavior to me is murmuration.

Imagine thousands of individuals going places together,

with no clear leader,

without fighting,

still following their impulses and avoiding each other.

Isn't this amazing?

Because we are not capable of doing this.

So dreaming big, we had this other idea.

How cool would it be if we could create a murmuration

with hundreds of lights flying in the sky,

responding to each other as birds?

Well, you would think you could hang a light under a drone.

But back in 2008, drones didn't really exist yet in the way they are today.

Universities were testing, in an early stage, quadcopters.

And in our search for collaborations and technologies

to help get all these objects in the sky at the same time,

we didn't find anything.

We were just way too early.

But we were so excited about this idea.

We just had to do this project.

Not knowing that we would plant a seed

for what almost ten years later is becoming an industry.

In our software development,

I think this was quite a unique process.

Different engineers basing their code on scientific data,

we developed our software as artists

by observing swarms for hours and hours.

Not calculating but relating to the behavior of these birds.

It was incredible how many uncontrollable factors were influencing their choices.

But it also made me realize, and it was eye-opening actually,

that also this happens to me.

I don't have control over my life.

With a computer, of course,

you can test multiple scenarios without big consequences.

But of course, this was not the physical reality.

Well, imagine how excited we were

when almost ten years later this was no longer software.

(Video) Ralph Nauta: OK, this is a test one.

Lonneke Gordijn: There they were, drones,

one by one, appearing in the sky.

Slowly starting to swarm.

We were observing it.

We were feeling it.

And we felt nothing.

Nothing.

(Laughter)

No emotional response.

We remained blanco.

What?

On a computer, it looked great.

But this swarm looked way too technical.

And we had to go back and let nature be our teacher

because we were fighting the nature of our technology.

Well, in a creative process, you try, you fail, you start over again.

You change direction.

Like evolution and like murmuration.

And you're not in control,

but you have to pave the road

in this constant and dynamic relationship with whatever that happens.

You know when it's right, when you feel it.

You feel when the connection is made.

So in 2018, we finally took our artwork to Burning Man.

(Music)

The drones took off.

And it was magic.

The swarm, larger than a building, was murmuring over the desert.

It wasn't a sculpture or a performance.

It was something bigger.

It became an environment that impacted the audience

all at once in the same way.

And together with the music,

everyone melted into one energy.

People were crying.

I was crying.

It was powerful.

And this experience connected all the present elements

in that one moment.

And it felt like a collective memory that came from deep within our DNA.

(Music)

In nature, every environment --

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

In nature, every environment is constantly moving.

And an animal doesn't know what it will eat tonight or at what time,

but it will be present in the moment,

ready to adapt to whatever is happening.

So why are human-built environments static?

Nothing moves.

Do we realize that this also stops us from moving?

Did we unlearn to deal with change?

Is this why we stopped noticing our environment?

And is this maybe why we don't respond to climate change,

and we feel numb while this is actually happening?

Behind me, you'll see a block of concrete.

I don't know if you noticed it before.

But how do you feel about a block of concrete?

Is it necessary to feel anything at all?

Because it's just a block of concrete.

We are so used to be part of a static world

with concrete as its main character.

But this shouldn't be our world.

This is how we used to think,

but this cannot be our future.

What can we learn if the world is not in our control?

What can we learn if we disrupt our expectations?

Well, at the moment the reality is just changing here in front of you.

Can you accept what you see?

And how does this feel?

Is it frightening?

Or can you feel a sense of wonder for a block of concrete?

Can you imagine there would be a moment

that you feel open

to have a connection with a block of concrete?

(Cheers and applause)

How can we deal with a changing world?

Are we in control?

I never felt at home in the static world.

And since my childhood,

I felt that animal behavior and plant behavior

is way more logical than the way people behave.

(Laughter)

As artists, we develop artworks

that use movement to open us up

and make us feel safe to embrace change.

Because there is one fact.

Change is coming.

And we are not in control.

We are murmuring.

We are drifting.

Thank you.

(Cheers and applause)

Helen Walters: So don't worry, it'll be here all session.

But just ...

(Laughter)

Lonneke, that was amazing.

I'm really sorry, you guys.

It's on its way out, it's fine.

(Laughter)

Okay, so come over here.

Just as long as we're fine, that's fine.

(Laughter)

LG: We're safe.

HW: What's happening?

LG: Well ...

This drifter tries to find its way out.

HW: It's trying to find its way out.

Is it sentient?

LG: Well, it should know where it goes.

So let's see.

HW: No, but really, what's happening?

What is going on?

(Laughter)

LG: I mean,

this is kind of magic, I would say,

and a big piece of engineering for my colleagues

and amazing engineers that are making this happen.

(Applause)

Yeah.

HW: OK, so, with this,

you basically just came to the TED stage

and told a whole bunch of type-A people to cede control,

to like, give up control.

Like, do you have any advice for how we should do that,

especially when there's something concrete floating over our heads?

No, but like, seriously, like, your work is about trial and error.

It's about experimentation.

Do you have any tips for the rest of us?

I mean, not me, but these guys.

LG: (Laughs)

Well, I think it's an illusion that we have control.

And if you look at nature, you see that it's also not there.

And I think we have to accept who we are,

that we are not in control and that we need to change.

You know, our bodies are made to change,

but we kind of forgot about it.

We built our safety structure around us, and we need to learn to go with it

and change with it as we are changing

and this world is changing.

HW: Lonneke, thank you so much.

LG: Thank you very much.

(Applause)