Overview

Research Project Number 33 was an interdisciplinary action that bridged the sensibility of the artist with the technology of space flight. On 4 April 1998, I flew aboard a NASA KC135 turbojet over the Gulf of Mexico from Houston’s Johnson Space Center and experienced the awe-inspiring sensation of creating art in a microgravity environment as scientific research.

My intention was simple: to eliminate the structural support—the canvas—while creating paintings floating in mid-air, with my body enveloped in the composition. I intended for technology and microgravity to contribute to the organic development of these kinetic “drift paintings,” with spontaneity and serendipity orchestrating the results

NOTE: The text presented in this section was written by Frank Pietronigro and published in the MIT Press publication Leonardo 33, No. 3, pp. 169–177, 2000.

Position mouse over image to see “drift painting” in action.
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Video footage courtesy of NASA, 1998.