Luminous structures whiz down from the ceiling through the stairwell in the direction of the visitors.

On the way down, they unfold, fall further down and suddenly brake at a still high altitude.

The umbrella-like objects then pull back into their open metal frame, whereupon the movement begins again.

At first glance, a never-ending process.

The even movement is accompanied by minimal music.

What can currently be seen and admired in the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe (MK&G) in Hamburg is part of a birthday party: five years ago, Hamburg's new landmark for architecture and sound, the Elbphilharmonie, or "Elphi" for short, opened this is now celebrated.

And Hamburg's design museum – one of the best in Germany – congratulates with three installations by Studio Drift from Eindhoven.

Their performative light sculpture "Breaking Waves" will also play around the public space around the concert hall, for the first time on April 28 and again in the following three days, accompanied by a live performance of a work by British composer Thomas Adès.

While the outdoor productions soon fade away, the museum invites you until the beginning of May to

Birthday greetings from Eindhoven

Studio Drift are primarily Lonneke Gordijn (born 1980) and Ralph Nauta (born 1978).

Both studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven and describe themselves as artists.

You work in the border area of ​​object design, technology and staging, for which there does not seem to be a suitable term yet.

At first glance, her designs appear too useless as design, and too applied and technoid as art.

A problem that the German media artist and designer Joachim Sauter (1959-2021), pioneer of the Berlin group (and company) Art + Com.

In 1994, with "terravision", he pioneered a technology that was later used by Google Earth.

But those were different times, visions and impulses.

Design by software

Gordijn and Nauta get additional technical and creative support for their productions.

Much is only made possible by software and by making those technologies invisible that are otherwise rarely inconspicuous.

Drift's concept work determines all the relevant details.

And they have it all: "Shylight" (2006) is the name of the installation made of silk, aluminum and steel, whose kinetic play can already be experienced when climbing the stairs - from a distance as well as up close.

Gordijn and Nauta pose the old question of the connection between nature and technology anew.

What we are being shown here is called nyctinasty in plants, it is the ability to protectively hide flowers overnight.

How does our perception of the organic world change when technology makes its processes visible in a new way?

At Drift, playfulness and precise design come together.

Her technologically demanding sculptures and stagings are reminiscent of technical visions such as Jules Verne once envisioned, or of 19th-century technical design, which preferred to pack modern achievements into organic forms.

The mechanical parts into which the finely pleated silk fabrics of "Shylight" contract and by means of which they unfold are reminiscent of Art Nouveau aesthetics.

“In 20 Steps” (2015) is the other installation that focuses on movement.

It's about the dream of flying.

Or is it a sequence of movements such as Eadweard Muybridge made visible in a series of snapshots?

Drift connects 20 pairs of glass tubes connected in series, which symbolize the flapping of wings.

The glass tubes are positioned with the utmost precision, brass weights ensure counter-movements, each pair of tubes has its own small electric motor on the ceiling and a complex movable suspension.

Again, the components are finely formed, their materiality signals tradition and durability.

Static side light additionally charges the movement through light refraction.

The kinetic sculpture has a very relaxing effect on many viewers.

Unlike in the stairwell, the slow,

Next door you can get on the trail of "Fragile Future III" (2005).

They are plant cyborgs that draw attention.

Gordijn and Nauta observe when the calyx of a dandelion turns into a dandelion.

She and her comrades-in-arms collected countless seed pods.

In the studio, the cups opened, individual seeds were sorted and glued to a light-emitting diode, which itself becomes a flower.

A folded copper structure, connected according to the circuit board principle, makes nature and technology glow together.

The designers see their aesthetic industrious project as a statement against mass production and throwaway culture.

In any case, it is pretty to look at.

The exhibition “Drift.

Moments of Connection” can be seen at the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe (MK & G) Hamburg until May 8th.