Frank Pietronigro
Encyclopedia
Frank Pietronigro is an interdisciplinary artist
, educator and author.
On April 4, 1998, Pietronigro flew from the NASA
Johnson Space Center, aboard a KC135 turbojet, to create ‘drift paintings’ as the artist's body floated within the 3-D kinetic painting space facilitated by parabolic flight and microgravity. He appropriated modernist painting
conventions using similar techniques employed in abstract expressionism
but with the intention of having very different outcomes within a postmodern situation. Pietronigro painted by squeezing rainbow colored acrylic paints from pastry bags into the space surrounding his body. A 75 inches (1,905 mm) by 48 inches (1,219.2 mm) by 52 inches (1,320.8 mm) plastic bag was tethered to the interior of the jet using bungie cords and Velcro
. This creativity chamber, as the artist called his studio, was to contain the floating paint while allowing for free-float body movement within the space. Before flight Pietronigro filled 10", 14" and 18" pastry bags with acrylic gel medium, at the viscosity of toothpaste, and then he used these tools to project the paint into the space surrounding his body.
“Drift Painting’ is not relegated to a static two-dimensional surface like the traditional paintings created by painters up through the time of moderism. What results with 'drift paintings' in weightlessness
are paintings with an infinite number of view points from which the kinetic compositions are evolving simultaneously, each in accordance to all points of view from which the work is viewed. It was never the intention of the artist to paint directly on a canvas but it was his intention to paint directly in the air and allow the paint to float and form its own composition. The artist indeed had a canvas placed within the space, titled Document 34; but, the artist considered this zero gravity painting as a research document on which the paint floated and dropped as gravity returned with each fluctuating parabola
. This process fosters a revolutionary step in the tradition of painting as the process dismisses linear perspective, the fixed point of view, a convention that has been used by painters since the Renaissance
. Microgravity was an environmental contributing factor in the development of these ‘drift paintings’ and serendipity, not the hand of the artist, orchestrated the results.
The traditional paint stroke was liberated from its containment to a particular time and space, in contrast to it being placed onto a canvas, because it now drifted with a momentum of its own, along with the body of the artist. As a matter of fact the process of ‘drift painting’ is zero gravity eliminates the art object completely other than the canvases which trace the remnants of the live painting experience. The actual artwork can be directly experienced only within the microgravity situation or through video presentations – a copy of the art cannot be made and the actual work is vitalized only within the space of zero gravity. Consequently, the commodity has been replaced by ritual action that was created by Pietronigro with the intention of fostering stronger community ties between artists and space scientists. The social and institutional structures that changed to support the dynamic interdisciplinary process are as important to manifesting the art as the energy of the jet.
flight projects that will help in the international effort to set the stage for teams of artists to have permanent access to space transportation systems including the International Space Station
. ZGAC supports arts, humanities
and culture in space education, international outreach and conference programs that are being organized as a way for artists, from all over the globe, to affiliate with us and experience the possibilities of collaborating with space flight technologists.
and serves the space art
community as one of the coordinators for Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2007/08 held at NASA Ames Research Center. Yuri's Night is a collaboration of many different communities and professional sectors coming together to honor the achievements of humanity and create a regenerative vision for the future. This astonishing music, video, arts, science, performance celebration takes place in various locations around the world but Frank Pietronigro specifically support Yuri's Night Bay Area that takes place at NASA Ames Research Center
on the tarmac and surrounding aircraft hangars. Yuri's Night parties across the globe will celebrate humanity's first entrance to space on the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight in 1961.
In 2006, he was Co-Chair of the Space Art Track of the 25th International Space Development Conference
, Co-Sponsored by the National Space Society
and the Planetary Society
. His work was featured in Space News in a feature titled ‘Artists Hope to Create New Science Fiction
with Zero-G Flights;’ in the Sunday New York Times Arts and Leisure, Fortune Magazine, a cover feature in the San Francisco Art Institute
Magazine, Hot Wired and Leonardo Magazine, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology
publication of the International Society of Arts, Science and Technology.
Pietronigro’s work was presented with museums and institutions worldwide and this interdisciplinary artist has been awarded multiple San Francisco Arts Commission
Individual Artist Commission Grants; a National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program Award; a Sobel Memorial Scholarship from the San Francisco Art Institute; a Creativity Certificate of Distinction from Art Direction Magazine; and a Merit Award from the Society of Communicating Arts, during their 32nd Annual Exhibit of Advertising and Design. Pietronigro studied at the University of the Arts
in Philadelphia, the Multimedia Studies Program, San Francisco State University
, and he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts, in Interdisciplinary Arts, from the San Francisco Art Institute
in 1996.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, educator and author.
Arts, cultural and humanities in space
Frank is the first American artist to create "drift paintings" where his body floated within a three-dimensional painting that he created in zero gravity aboard NASA's KC135 aircraft.On April 4, 1998, Pietronigro flew from the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Johnson Space Center, aboard a KC135 turbojet, to create ‘drift paintings’ as the artist's body floated within the 3-D kinetic painting space facilitated by parabolic flight and microgravity. He appropriated modernist painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
conventions using similar techniques employed in abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
but with the intention of having very different outcomes within a postmodern situation. Pietronigro painted by squeezing rainbow colored acrylic paints from pastry bags into the space surrounding his body. A 75 inches (1,905 mm) by 48 inches (1,219.2 mm) by 52 inches (1,320.8 mm) plastic bag was tethered to the interior of the jet using bungie cords and Velcro
Velcro
Velcro is the brand name of the first commercially marketed fabric hook-and-loop fastener, invented in 1948 by the Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral...
. This creativity chamber, as the artist called his studio, was to contain the floating paint while allowing for free-float body movement within the space. Before flight Pietronigro filled 10", 14" and 18" pastry bags with acrylic gel medium, at the viscosity of toothpaste, and then he used these tools to project the paint into the space surrounding his body.
“Drift Painting’ is not relegated to a static two-dimensional surface like the traditional paintings created by painters up through the time of moderism. What results with 'drift paintings' in weightlessness
Weightlessness
Weightlessness is the condition that exists for an object or person when they experience little or no acceleration except the acceleration that defines their inertial trajectory, or the trajectory of pure free-fall...
are paintings with an infinite number of view points from which the kinetic compositions are evolving simultaneously, each in accordance to all points of view from which the work is viewed. It was never the intention of the artist to paint directly on a canvas but it was his intention to paint directly in the air and allow the paint to float and form its own composition. The artist indeed had a canvas placed within the space, titled Document 34; but, the artist considered this zero gravity painting as a research document on which the paint floated and dropped as gravity returned with each fluctuating parabola
Parabola
In mathematics, the parabola is a conic section, the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface...
. This process fosters a revolutionary step in the tradition of painting as the process dismisses linear perspective, the fixed point of view, a convention that has been used by painters since the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. Microgravity was an environmental contributing factor in the development of these ‘drift paintings’ and serendipity, not the hand of the artist, orchestrated the results.
The traditional paint stroke was liberated from its containment to a particular time and space, in contrast to it being placed onto a canvas, because it now drifted with a momentum of its own, along with the body of the artist. As a matter of fact the process of ‘drift painting’ is zero gravity eliminates the art object completely other than the canvases which trace the remnants of the live painting experience. The actual artwork can be directly experienced only within the microgravity situation or through video presentations – a copy of the art cannot be made and the actual work is vitalized only within the space of zero gravity. Consequently, the commodity has been replaced by ritual action that was created by Pietronigro with the intention of fostering stronger community ties between artists and space scientists. The social and institutional structures that changed to support the dynamic interdisciplinary process are as important to manifesting the art as the energy of the jet.
Zero Gravity Arts Consortium (ZGAC)
Frank Pietronigro is Co-Founder and Project Director of the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium. The organization was Co-Founded in 1999 by Laura Knott, Lorelei Lisowsky and Frank Pietronigro. Zero Gravity Arts Consortium (ZGAC) is an international space arts organization dedicated to fostering greater access for artists to space flight technology and zero gravity space through the creation of international partnerships with space agencies, space industry entrepreneurs, arts and science organizations and leading universities. ZGAC is the first organization of its kind, based in the United States, that is facilitating parabolicParabola
In mathematics, the parabola is a conic section, the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface...
flight projects that will help in the international effort to set the stage for teams of artists to have permanent access to space transportation systems including the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
. ZGAC supports arts, humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and culture in space education, international outreach and conference programs that are being organized as a way for artists, from all over the globe, to affiliate with us and experience the possibilities of collaborating with space flight technologists.
Background
Frank Pietronigro is an Associate Fellow at the STUDIO For Creative Inquiry, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
and serves the space art
Space art
Space art is a general term for art emerging from knowledge and ideas associated with outer space, both as a source of inspiration and as a means for visualizing and promoting space travel. Whatever the stylistic path, the artist is generally attempting to communicate ideas somehow related to...
community as one of the coordinators for Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2007/08 held at NASA Ames Research Center. Yuri's Night is a collaboration of many different communities and professional sectors coming together to honor the achievements of humanity and create a regenerative vision for the future. This astonishing music, video, arts, science, performance celebration takes place in various locations around the world but Frank Pietronigro specifically support Yuri's Night Bay Area that takes place at NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other...
on the tarmac and surrounding aircraft hangars. Yuri's Night parties across the globe will celebrate humanity's first entrance to space on the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight in 1961.
In 2006, he was Co-Chair of the Space Art Track of the 25th International Space Development Conference
International Space Development Conference
The International Space Development Conference is the annual conference of the National Space Society . Now in its 30th year, these conferences connect the general public and the NSS membership with leaders of contemporary space efforts...
, Co-Sponsored by the National Space Society
National Space Society
The National Space Society is an international nonprofit 501, educational, and scientific organization specializing in space advocacy...
and the Planetary Society
Planetary Society
The Planetary Society is a large, publicly supported, non-government and non-profit organization that has many research projects related to astronomy...
. His work was featured in Space News in a feature titled ‘Artists Hope to Create New Science Fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
with Zero-G Flights;’ in the Sunday New York Times Arts and Leisure, Fortune Magazine, a cover feature in the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
Magazine, Hot Wired and Leonardo Magazine, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
publication of the International Society of Arts, Science and Technology.
Pietronigro’s work was presented with museums and institutions worldwide and this interdisciplinary artist has been awarded multiple San Francisco Arts Commission
San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission is the official San Francisco County, USA arts council.The San Francisco Arts Commission It was established in 1932 and runs under the California state arts council, the California Arts Council . The commission is appointed by the major...
Individual Artist Commission Grants; a National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program Award; a Sobel Memorial Scholarship from the San Francisco Art Institute; a Creativity Certificate of Distinction from Art Direction Magazine; and a Merit Award from the Society of Communicating Arts, during their 32nd Annual Exhibit of Advertising and Design. Pietronigro studied at the University of the Arts
University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
The University of the Arts is one of the United States' oldest universities dedicated to the arts. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia...
in Philadelphia, the Multimedia Studies Program, San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, and he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts, in Interdisciplinary Arts, from the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
in 1996.