Studio Drift: Meadow

Amsterdam-based art and design collective Studio Drift is known for its large-scale installations that emphasize the connection between humans and earth. Studio Drift: Meadow is the American debut of their self dubbed, “upside-down landscape,” a masterwork of kinetic lighting comprising eighteen mechanical blossoms that open and close in response to visitors passing below them. 

Inspired by the biological behavior of nyctinasty—the ability of certain plants to bloom in the daytime and close their petals at night—visitors operate as sunlight proxies, activating motion sensors that cause the petals to react and change color in their presence. The fabric flowers are dyed in gradient shades that harmonize with colored LED lights to evoke the changing tones of a skyscape as dawn transitions to dusk.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.