“The Zero Gravity Band” (Albert Barqué-Duran, Marc Marzenit, Elisa Ferrè) is an awarded disruptive scientific and artistic project, Premièred at Sónar (Barcelona), that explores the concept of art outside planet Earth and its potential cultural implications. Specifically, it examines how both production (music and fine arts) and perception (aesthetics) of art changes when we are not restricted to the physical laws and framework that planet Earth’s gravity imposes to us. To overcome to terrestrial gravity, we took part on a series of parabolic flights with the aim to produce an artwork designed and motivated to be experienced and perceived in microgravity.

The objectives of the ZGB project were to explore with a rigorous scientific approach how gravity affects aesthetic preferences and design an artistic installation based on the novel research on how gravity itself shapes our perceptual and aesthetic experiences. The scientific and artistic research of the project motivated a protocol for an immersive installation with the aim of disturbing the vestibular system and inducing zero-gravity and vertigo sensations to the audience based on a 3D sound and visual stimulation. The concepts of music and art interpreted and generated in contexts with different gravity present a new paradigm in the history of humanity. We believe this could make ground-breaking progress in the understanding of microgravity effects on human cognition and might engender practical implications for the design of interiors of spaceships and space stations for long term space flight.

© Albert Barqué-Duran and Marc Marzenit. 2021. All rights reserved.