„Drone 100“: First Light Shows with Drones

In November 2015, the Ars Electronica Futurelab teamed up with Intel to set a drone world record. At the same time, the project showed an artistic way of using small quadrocopters - with a special light show and a kind of reinterpretation of fireworks.

After a year of development by a 15-member team, the project called Drone 100 finally became a reality. In 2015, 100 so-called Spaxels hovered simultaneously in Hamburg's night sky for the first time. Spaxels stand for space pixels and are basically drones equipped with LEDs.

Accompanied by an orchestra, a technologically and visually fascinating choreography and light show was created. Until then, something comparable had only been achieved with a maximum of 50 quadrocopters.

The goal of this project was not only to stage an exciting light show, but also to advance the technology, to increase safety and, last but not least, to show another side of the often negatively connoted unmanned flying objects.

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