Spectacular Drone Show Lights Up The Sky Over New York's Central Park
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Thousands of New York residents witnessed a mesmerizing kinetic light show on October 21, 2023. The performance, titled "Franchise Freedom," featured 1,000 illuminated drones. The autonomous machines formed synchronous patterns in the sky above the Central Park Lake in three separate, 10-minute showings. The drone "dance" was synched to music by Dutch composer and pianist Joep Beving.
"Franchise Freedom" was the brainchild of Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta. The Dutch artists fitted the drones with custom software programmed to mimic the flight behavior of starlings. Called murmurations, it involves large flocks of the songbirds twisting, turning, and swirling across the sky in beautiful shape-shifting clouds.
The show has previously been performed at NASA and a few other places. However, the New York spectacle was much larger in scale than past presentations. They typically involved around 300 drones.
"Franchise Freedom" was Central Park's largest public artwork project since "The Gates" in 2005. This temporary installation featured 7,503 "gates" holding saffron-colored fabric. They lined 23 miles (37 km) of the iconic park's pathways.
Resources: CNN.com, NYPost.com, NPR.com
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39 Comments
- dogo22amazingg47 monthsI saw one before
- iceyqueen10 monthsI would love to see the show in person!
- iceyqueen10 monthsSo cool!
- ganderson00211 monthsit beautiful
- fohimepasifi11 monthslove this article
- salish_matter11 monthsSo cool
- dehevydecyhe12 monthsWow!
- huvyhacu-16948018277412 monthsThat is so cool
- zyguhuno-16948018277412 monthsThat is so cool, I saw something like this on vacation!
- kaylee-201012 monthsSOOOO pretty!!!!!!!