ArtRave

ArtRave (stylized as artRAVE) was a two-day event hosted by Lady Gaga from November 10–11, 2013, as part of the promotional campaign for her third studio album, Artpop (2013). The event, held in a large warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, served as an album release party and included a press conference and a live performance. During the press conference, Gaga revealed "the world's first flying dress", called the Volantis, confirmed plans to stage a performance in space in 2015, and introduced new works by Marina Abramović, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Jeff Koons, and Robert Wilson. The warehouse contained a giant statue of Gaga created by Koons on one side and other artworks, while screens all around displayed videos of Gaga's performances with Abramović. There were contortionists, a DJ booth, as well as free food and drink for the assembled crowd.

The event was to have been sponsored by American Express, however they backed out at the last moment failing to come to terms regarding ArtRave's production. Gaga performed a concert which was streamed live on Vevo and later rebroadcast through the website's syndication partners. The set list consisted of songs from Artpop. On November 11, Clear Channel aired a half-hour special called Album Release Party with Lady Gaga, hosted by Ryan Seacrest on more than 150 radio stations throughout the United States. On November 19, The CW aired a television special with footage from the album release party. ArtRave received generally positive reviews from critics who noted the enormity of the production, as well as Gaga's performance and enthusiasm; the launch of Volantis was generally criticised.

Development of Lady Gaga's third studio album, Artpop, began shortly after the release of her second one, Born This Way in 2011. By the following year, Gaga started collaborating with producers Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow. In the meantime, she began presenting tracks to her record company and hoped to announce the album's working title by September 2013; a revelation that was actually disclosed one month earlier. The artist later claimed that Artpop was her first "real album" comparing herself to a "phoenix rising from the ashes", which reflected her heightened confidence in writing material for the album compared to her previous efforts.

Gaga recruited artist Jeff Koons for the project in early 2013; the two had met previously at a Metropolitan Museum of Art fashion event three years earlier, where Gaga had a live performance. According to Koons, Gaga "just kind of grabbed ahold of me and gave me a big hug around my waist and replied, 'You know, Jeff, I've been such a fan of yours, and when I was a kid just hanging out in Central Park I would talk to my friends about your work'." In addition to Interscope Records notifying mainstream media outlets about upcoming releases for Artpop in July 2013, Gaga announced plans for a multimedia software application which "combines music, art, fashion, and technology with a new interactive worldwide community."

A public announcement, posted on July 12, 2013, revealed plans for an ArtRave event the night before the release of Artpop, unveiling projects Gaga had been working on in collaboration with her creative team, the Haus of Gaga, Dutch photographer duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, avant -garde theater director Robert Wilson, performance artist Marina Abramović, and Koons. The announcement featured Gaga covering her bare breasts with her arms, with her forearm "Artpop" tattoo in plain sight, wearing a visor designed by London College of Fashion alumna Isabell Yalda Hellysaz. Another promotional image showed Gaga with long brown hair, sporting a pair of spectacles, sitting completely naked on a chair crafted from motherboards as she displays her unicorn thigh tattoo.

The event was held at the reportedly "top secret" Duggal Greenhouse, a large warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. It spanned two days, starting with a press conference on November 10 and extending into the morning of November 11, 2013, the album's release date in the United States. New York's OneNine Design company was responsible for the event planning and the production. Gaga also employed the Roschman Dance group to perform during the party and the event.

The interior of the yard was strewn with art pieces and art works. There was a food truck and open bar, and at one end there was a white stage with a spiral staircase. Opposite the stage, across the room, stood a giant statue of Gaga depicted naked, with her hands covering the breasts, created by Koons. In between her spread legs, Koons' characteristic blue gazing ball was placed; the statue was photographed and used in the album cover design for Artpop. Between the stage and the Gaga sculpture stood four other statues created by Koons In flagrante delicto, as well as the open bars where contortionists performed their intricate moves. The area was surrounded by large video screens which displayed Gaga's work with Abramović (showing the singer stumbling through a forest naked), Inez and Vinoodh, as well as with Wilson. Adjacent to the main space, there was a side area which featured an art installation called Binary Room, by artist Benjamin Rollins Caldwell, consisting of a room with all the furniture and flooring made up of old computer parts. Another room was dedicated to the display and usage of the Artpop app, as well as the fashions created by the Haus of Gaga for the ArtRave. There were personnel dressed in matching future-esque uniforms to walkthrough the app and its uses, including "the ability to read auras, create animated 3D Gifs and remix Gaga's music."

ArtRave was an "extravagant spectacle" according to Billboard's Andrew Hampp. However, he also noted that though the event did not have any sponsors, Gaga "was part of a select group of artists who have firmly thrown their branding lot in with the tech–music innovation space". Projects like Creators with Vice and Intel, as well as artists like will.i.am, Jay-Z and Björk were cited as precedents for crafting events and merging music and technology with art. Gaga, who had been named a creative director of Polaroid Corporation in 2010, had been involved in technical projects like Backplane with her former manager Troy Carter; Gaga separated from Carter a few days before the ArtRave. But Hampp believed that the explicit nature of the art works and the videos being shown had deprived Gaga of the opportunity of any "overt" sponsorship for the event. He explained that Billboard had reached out to three executives from American Express (AmEx), the company which was supposed to sponsor ArtRave but had "backed out" due to creative differences. Speaking off the record, the executives confirmed that AmEx had been slated to bear the expenses of the event as well as the live streaming. They later issued an apology statement: