Space/travel

Eine Gruppe von Menschen in einem Flugzeug das sich in einem schraubenden Sturzflug befindet.
So wird von der NASA die Schwerelosigkeit simuliert.

San Francisco, April 25, 1998 - Bay Area interdisciplinary artist, Frank Pietronigro, has become the first American to investigate new creative methods which combine the floating of his body in weightlessness with the creation of acrylic paintings suspended in mid-air. After a ten year quest, Pietronigro flew his creative research experiment on Saturday, April 4, 1998, from NASA Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field. A microgravity environment was achieve, aboard the Boeing KC135 turbojet, that flew 42 roller-coaster like parabolic maneuvers which resulted in a series of 20-25 second periods of weightlessness.

Frank Pietronigro began his research in microgravity by completing a simple vertical drawing of a train engine while blindfolded in free-float. This drawing was created for the purpose of studying perceptual changes, experienced by the artist, as prompted by a vertical inversion process experienced in microgravity. This drawing was then compared with a similar drawing he completed the night before while he was still on the ground. A pair of royal blue Chinese silk flags were then used by Pietronigro. Weighted down with curtain weights Frank floated his hand-sewn flags around his body.

Research Project Number 33: Investigating Creativity In A Microgravity Environment, was approved for flight by NASA, through the 1998 NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Program, a project of the Texas Space Grant Consortia. Founded by Pietronigro in 1988, Research Project Number 33 was integrated into a San Francisco Art Institute 1998 Directed Studies science class, lead by Peter Richards and Tom Humphrey, Faculty Advisors to the artists flight team. Other flight team members included: Elizabeth Allbee Abascal, Clovis Blackwell and Kris Shapiro. Scientific issues explored by the flight team included collisions, fluid dynamics and angular momentum exchange. The artistic elements included video, choreography, drawing and the extension of the concept of "action painting" by eliminating the canvas and projecting paint directly into space. Chiori Santiago, Art Critic for the San - Jose Mercury News and a freelance writer for Smithsonian Magazine, accompanied the flight team to Houston, as the project’s

In 1987 the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program was authorized by Congress to increase the understanding, assessment, development, and use of space resources. The National Space Grant Consortium provides awarded students across the country with the opportunity to experience and conduct experiments in a true three-dimensional “weightless” environment at the Johnson’s Space Center’s Reduced Gravity Program. The NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Program, administered by the Texas Space Grant Consortium, allows up to 48 undergraduate student teams, in 1998, to propose, design, fabricate, fly and assess a reduced-gravity experiment of their choice.

Research Project Number 33: Investigating Creativity In A Microgravity Environment is partnered with MIT’s Leonardo Magazine. Leonardo Online sponsors the home page of Research Project Number 33 at: http://www.mitpress.mit.edu/e-journals/
Leonardo/spaceart/NASAproject33/

New artwork created by Pietronigro along with project documents, video and photographic documentation highlighting Research Project Number 33 will be publicly presented in a variety of venues which will be announced shortly. Frank Pietroingro has actively exhibited in San Francisco since 1978 and his work is represented in galleries throughout the United States. He has served the Bay Area community as a Boardmember of the Castro Street Fair in 1996. He was appointed by the San Francisco Arts Commission to Direct the San Francisco Arts Festival in 1985 and also produced San Francisco's Art In The Park in 1982 and 1983. He is currently studying science at the San Francisco Art Institute and digital imaging at San Francisco State Multimedia Studies Program.

To obtain photographs, digital images or for more information please contact Frank Pietronigro at 415-695-0933 or write signifun@earthlink.net. For more information about the San Francisco Art Institute 1998 Directed Studies science class please contact Patti Quill, Director of Communications at the San Francisco Art Institute at 415-749-4546.

"The physical sensations and sensory disorientation were beyond anything my imagination could have ever conceived. The best I could do, in terms of engaging in the creative process and scientific research, was simply to allow my body to drift as if I were being gently swayed by shifting water currents. The rest is on film. The knowledge I gained from this experience with NASA and the San Francisco Art Institute will have influence on my artwork for years to come. I experienced a profound sense of the mystical prompted by my journey to NASA's exotic space of microgravity and discovered much from the scientists who instructed me."