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FLOAT! Thinktank 21 is an installation piece by Thom Kubli that comprises a floatation tank, a sound composition, an archive of audio performances by the artist and a context table filled with books referring to the theme of weightlessness.

Drawing from experiments in brain research conducted by John C. Lilly in the 1950′s, the floatation tank embraces the idea of sensory deprivation. Within this environment, the audience listens to an underwater sound piece examining the relationship between politics and zero gravity. “Zero gravity can be read as a condition where prevailing reference models are suspended,” Kubli writes. “The condition of zero gravity might be evoked by willingly refusing a social and political model.“

The session in the tank lasts approximately 50min. The composition will frame a period of silence and sensory deprivation with a 5 min. sound intro and a short outro played via an underwater sound system. The flanking archive of audio performances comprises a series of spoken notes made the artist after his own floatation sessions.

Float! Thinktank 21 is an EMPAC Commission supported by The Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. The tank is provided by HighTech Floatation.