DRIFT brings three new large-scale light installations to Manar Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, transforming Jubail Island into an illuminated landscape of shifting wind, data, and memory. Part of the outdoor festival’s second edition, running until January 4th, 2026, the works are staged within mangroves, tidal waterways, and open sky, allowing technology and environment to operate as a single system.
DRIFT Integrates Light With Nature Across Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi
Across Jubail Island, the three installations introduce different modes of engagement: Whispers unfolds at ground level within the grassland; Unfold operates as an interactive, AI-driven environment that responds to visitors’ heartbeats; and Wind of Change expands into the sky through a 2,000-drone performance. Together, they span landscape, body, and atmosphere, using light, movement, and real-time data to examine how human presence intersects with the island's natural setting.
Three different interactions are included in the Dutch duo's contribution. In Whispers (2025), 500 LED elements are set amid wild Guinea grass, reflecting its proportions and natural tendency to bend with the wind.
Each light tip collapses the hierarchies between artwork, environment, and human presence by matching the viewer's height. A reminder that adaptation is nature's silent superpower, the field reacts to breezes moving across the installation with a rippling light pattern.
'Whispers', 'Unfold', and 'Wind of Change' Explore Nature, Ground, Body, and Sky
'Unfold' turns biometric data into a fleeting digital sculpture. Visitors’ heartbeats are measured in real time and translated into a shifting audio-visual display that blossoms like a character-driven flower. Every pattern, rhythm, and chromatic decision stems from the body’s internal tempo, making the artwork less a spectacle and more a moment of self-recognition.
The most expansive work, Wind of Change, animates the sky with 2,000 coordinated drones. Their flight traces invisible natural forces, wind currents, oceanic movement, and the gradual sculpting of dunes. The shapes in the sky move from abstraction toward a collective symbol, the falcon, emblem of Abu Dhabi, crossing the night before dissolving into a vortex that releases drifting seeds. The idea emphasizes renewal, imagining the city as something continuously forming.
Together, the three works form an interconnected study of perception, positioning visitors as observers and participants within a living ecosystem. By linking ground, body, and sky through responsive light, DRIFT transforms Jubail Island into a site where technology amplifies the rhythms of nature. The result is an experience that lingers beyond the festival itself. Every environment holds stories of movement, memory, and transformation, waiting to be illuminated.
Photos by @studio.drift.
