Gaga Takes Flight Debuts Flying Dress at “ARTPOP” Release Event

Just call her Lady Poppins!  On the eve of the release of her newest album ARTPOP, Lady Gaga demonstrated a flying dress Sunday night then put on an album release party like only Lady Gaga can.

The festivities took place at the expansive Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, where Gaga summoned the press to see “Volantis,” a flying dress that's essentially a hovercraft-style vehicle with a female body frame. It's powered by six battery-powered turbines.

The demonstration took place in a large, chilly warehouse with runway lights hugging the perimeter of the space while men and women in white jumpsuits milled about, akin to something you might at the Kennedy Space Center.

After introducing the project and the two young people who helped create the dress, Gaga took off her jumpsuit to reveal a black, one piece bodysuit and proceeded to climb into the flying dress cockpit.

Volantis created a lot of noise and wind and got Gaga about five feet off the ground as it covered a distance of 20 feet on her first flight.  After two more attempts, Gaga ended up traveling about 50 yards, but never got more than seven feet off the ground.

The singer described her journey as fun but acknowledged it was noisy.

Of course, you’re probably wondering why Volantis even exists. Gaga explains,  “As we were creating her, y’know, she became more and more functional, actually. In the very beginning we were very excited about this idea of building a flying dress and it was sort of humorous and whimsical and it seemed like the sort of thing I would like to perform in on stage but then when we started to really work on her we realized her potential for the world and for everyone.”

While on the surface this may seem like it has nothing to do with her new album, the theme of ARTPOP is the marriage of art, popular culture and technology inspired by young people and their creative spirit.

“When I was writing ARTPOP, all of these amazing young people around me were in my heart and my soul and I was thinking about their potential and their possibilities," Gaga explained, "and then I was thinking about the potential and the possibilities of many young people all over the world who are never given a voice.”

Gaga said of Volantis, “Although she is a vehicle, she is essentially a metaphor for me. I will be a vehicle today for their voices...Youth all over the world.”

The evening culminated in an album release party at another venue at the Brooklyn Navy Yard which was part rave, part art installation and part concert.

Sunday night's event was the start of what will obviously be a big promotional week for Gaga. You'll find her in Monday's edition of USA Today she's depicted in the logo for the paper's "Life" section. It borrows from the ARTPOP artwork designed by Jeff Koons.

In an accompanying interview, she remarks, "I'm at the age where you see blond hair and breasts and a butt and hear me singing about sex or fighting for gay rights, people start to roll their eyes. But no matter what happens, I'm prepared to go down with the ship."

Later in the week, Gaga will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new H&M store in New York City's iconic Times Square. She'll help open the store at 12:01 a.m. local time on Thursday.