“Fragile Future.” All images © DRIFT, shared with permission

Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, the pair behind the Amsterdam-based studio DRIFT, have spent the last few decades exploring the intersection of technology and nature, an experience they recount in a new interview supported by Colossal Members. Their broad, immersive body of work harnesses the power of robotics, manufactured mechanisms, and even algorithms to visualize some of the most stunning and captivating biological phenomena and ecological cycles.

We believe that we live in a time where technology and nature are no longer opposites but are codependent entities. For DRIFT, inspiration and natural phenomena always stand at the epicenter of our works—technology is merely the means to bring our visions to life—whereas the internet allows us to share our visions with as many people as possible.

In this conversation, Colossal managing editor Grace Ebert speaks with the pair about the origins of their collaboration-driven studio, how recognizing and internalizing patterns can help us realign with the world around us, and why nature and the inevitability of change is the only guarantee.

“Shylight”

• Ethereal Digital Botanicals by Ondrej Zunka Explore Human Dependency on Plant Species
• Life and Death Converge in a Two-Sided Field of 17,000 Steel Flowers by Zadok Ben-David