Make dispatched a local colleague and DIY enthusiast named Dave Sims to interview us about the Crawler. We were, of course, overjoyed as Make folks are our heros!
See more of our kinetic conveyances of whimsy at our patinated new Web site: Krank-Boom-Clank.
Krank-Boom-Clank is a new industrial alternative arts collective in Santa Rosa, building “Kinetic Conveyances of Whimsy”. The four builders, David Farish, Dan Kirby, Skye Barnett, and Clifford Hill, just completed their gorgeous new site.
K-B-C have been seen about lately with their large, 4-wheeled “Hennepin Crawler” at Burning Man 2008 and The Great Handcar Regatta 2008, among other local events.
GALLERY
Plenty of photos of their creations and attended events are recounted in the Gallery.
By stache at 9:26 am on Thursday, November 20, 2008
I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to receive an in-depth comment from an organizer named Paul Jorgensen of the Afrika Burns regional in South Africa.
After reading the comment and returning to browse the site, I’m impressed by the scale and enthusiastic participation of these dedicated fellow burners near Cape Town.
This got me to thinking about how fun it would be to make a world tour of the various burns there are now. We’ve seen the documentaries on Burning Man in Nevada, how about a comprehensive look at the variations of the event in other venues and countries!?
Just a few places of note besides South Africa are: New Zealand’s Kiwi Burn, Nowhere in Zargoza, Spain, many in Canada and Europe, as well as burner friendly places in Asia too. I recently posted a regionals long list I swiped from a Tribe user and of course there’s the master list at Burning Man Regionals site.
Then this sprawling worldwide regionals idea collided with the notion of bringing the Hennepin Crawler to these far-flung events. How amazing to bring something born and bred for the Playa to another burn far removed.
Or, better yet, RIDE the Crawler across the globe in one of those crazy projects to circumnavigate the earth in some jalopy of one’s own devising! Then, innocent peoples along the route are subjected to this ridiculous human-powered kinetic contraption on its slow and merry way to distant Burning Man festivals on other continents, all the while filming the process as a documentary (in matching oddball costumes of course).
It would surely bludgeon an unsuspecting world public with the ideas of strange ingenuity, rampant creative silliness running amuck for the sake of art, and the notion of community and giving beyond the commercial marketplace, spreading a certain dusty goodness of heady Playa fun throughout our fellow earthly denizens.
Alright then, who wants to fund Krank-Boom-Clank on our world Crawler tour of regional burns…?
The indelible master of the pedal-power madness that is Scotty C. has just completed yet another amazing kinetic sculpture on wheels known as the Duck Flambé. A local rag has a story on a night it hit the town: Fire it up.
What a gorgeous ride! Congratulations, Scotty and co-builder Ken Beidleman!
A large gallery of pictures of construction in progress is available to peruse.
The latest project I’m part of is coming along nicely. What is it…? Well, think a 4-person pedal-power kinetic sculpture on handmade 4ft diameter wheels using cannibalized bikes and metal lawn furniture weighing in at over 13 ft long!
A SPLENDID CELEBRATION OF ART, SCIENCE AND INGENUITY, FOR THE DELIGHT AND EDIFICATION OF ALL WHO ATTEND.
A SPECTACLE FOR BOTH YOUNG AND OLD!
The Handcar Regatta invites Builders, Tinkerers and Artists to create and then race a Human Powered Rail Bound Vehicle for the adoring public.
The Handcar Regatta brings Art and Science out of the galleries, studios, and smokey laboratories, out among the People, where everyone can enjoy it and participate!
The Handcar Regatta will delight the senses with Melodious Music, Daring Diversions, Rollicking Games, Delectable Comestibles, and all manner of Adventurous Entertainments!
The spirited chaps and lasses at Neverwas Haul are currently endeavoring to incur benefaction by public acquisition of exclusive and superlative Goggles via the Ebay Aetherwebs.
This is most exciting! The 2008 “Honorariums” (grantees) have been posted! I could quite easily spend all day (and the next) greedily perusing the entire long list. Apparently, the kind folks at Burning Man have given a higher number of 38 total grants this year (up from the usual 30 or so). Also, they received more international proposals than ever before. Looks like an amazing year for art (as well as the usual WTF!? projects) on the Playa! See below from Jack Rabbit Speaks:
ANNOUNCING … THE 2008 BURNING MAN HONORARIUM PROJECTS
The Burning Man Art Department is pleased to announce the funded projects for 2008. This year we are funding 38 projects, an increase from our usual 30 or so, as we are funding more small projects. Less than 1/3 of the projects are from the Bay Area, and we received many more proposals from abroad than ever before. We have four overseas projects this year: two from London, one from Amsterdam, and one from Wales. (Note: grants for the Man Base art installations will be announced in a future JRS.)
The funded projects are:
Altered State, by Kate Raudenbush, New York, NY (Click on New: Altered State)
Basura Sagrada, by Shrine, Tuktuk, and the Basura Sagrada Collaboratory - Pasadena, CA and Portland,
Bummer, by Myk Henry, New York, NY/Geneva, Switzerland
“Bummer” is a super size Humvee measuring 38 feet long x 18 feet wide x 16 feet high. Half of the Hummer will be painted in military khaki and the other half a bright sporty color. This sculpture epitomizes this country’s obsession with power and the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the American dream.
Celtic Forest, by Laura Kimpton, Bob Hoffman and Jeff Schomberg, Nicasio, CA
Elevation, by Michael Christian, Berkeley, CA
Elevation is a fully climbable sculpture constructed of winding tube steel ladders that elevate to a seated perch for one, on its peak. The height of the piece will be 56 feet.
Fleeble Flobbler, by Charlie Smith and Jaime Laudet, Atlanta, GA
Free Flight, by David Boyer, Reno NV
“Free Flight” is a sculpture that celebrates the ultimate freedom, the escape from the bounds of earth. Consisting of six wind-driven kinetic birds, this sculpture is in constant flux as the winds of the Black Rock grow, recede, shift and change.
Hand of Man, by Christian Ristow, Taos, New Mexico
Harmonic Geometry, by Glenn Easley and Rikk Carey, Vashon, WA
glenn.Easley at gmail.com
Popaver Rubrum Giganticum, by Gary Miller, Wyndmoor, PA
Popaver rubrum giganteum (giant red poppy) consists of three hundred 10′ tall poppies in various shades of red. The design allows for variation in the layout and placement of the individual elements.
Pswarm (PDF), by the Dept. of Spontaneous Combustion, Oakland, CA
Pyrocardium, by False Profit Labs, San Francisco, CA
Spaghetti West Ten, by the Mutoid Waste Co., London, UK
A 12′ long, by 15′ tall motorized apocalyptic horse, part beast, part rust-ravaged machine, pulls a punked-out parody of a pioneer’s covered wagon, which contains a stage for musical acts and performance.
Tantalus, by Peter Hudson, San Francisco, CA
Tantalus is Peter’s fourth large scale zoetrope. Participants must engage a laboriously intense mechanism that puts a modern spin on the myth of Tantalus while reflecting on the seemingly dwindling fruits of such labor.
The Cave, by Chassy Cleland and Henya Emmer, New York, NY
Wheel of Thwarted Ambition, by Anton Viditz-Ward, Telluride, CO
This kinetic fire sculpture represents change, rebirth and creation. Driven by a hand crank, a wheel containing buckets of burning wood is spun around, creating a ring of fire and producing lots of fireflies.
You are All so Many of Me, by Michael Emery, Santa Cruz, CA
A multitude of small cut mirrors provides the opportunity for both literal and metaphorical reflection. During the day, the viewer perceives a cubist self-portrait smiling back. At certain points during the night this reflection will be enhanced with a variety of images projected by LCD upon the mirrors. The viewer is invited to interact with images of fire and water as well as a racial/gender spectrum of other humans. The viewer is invited to contemplate, and perhaps to help create the American Dream of FREEDOM FOR ALL.
“Zsu Zsu the crybaby drama queen won’t you come play with meeee,
I built you this trailer for Burning Man so you would care for meee.”
“Zsuuu Zsu, Zsuuu Zsu… Leeeve me a geeft then go ahwey!
…Zsuuu Zsu, Zsuuu Zsu… Eetz so fuckeeng HOT.”
UPDATE - More Zsu Zsu madness
“Zsu Zsu noooo! No Zsu Zsu, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….”
RESPECT THE ART: IF YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT, DON’T BREAK IT!!
Over the last several years, Burning Man has seen a disturbing trend growing in Black Rock City: more and more art installations are getting vandalized or damaged every year, including everything from tagging to outright destruction.
Artists work exceptionally hard to create artwork for the playa at great personal expense. Understandably, they are deeply affected when their work is destroyed or damaged … and participants who would have otherwise experienced the piece as it was intended are also affected. While some participants may see vandalism as their personal form of “radical self-expression”, ultimately, personal expression needs to be tempered by the realities of co-existing within a community, which requires mutual respect to thrive.
Please help us spread the word: if you didn’t make it, don’t break it! Help stop mindless vandalism to artwork on the playa.
Some of the artists tell their stories below, in a letter to our community from Kate Raudenbush, who created the Guardian of Eden last year. We reprint them for you here, in the hopes that their words speak more persuasively than any missive we could craft. We know that most JRS readers are unlikely to be the culprits of vandalism; we hope you will help by taking time to share in watching out for the artwork in our city.
The machine is powered by a 454 cubic inch chevy V-8 married to a modified TH400 trans coupled to two klune extreme under drive planetary gear boxes, uses a rockwell 2 1/2 ton military axle to supply power to the leg crank shafts, The final drive ratio is 125:1. The legs are supported on a 4 link system and uses 56 pivot points and 114 bearings.
12,000-lb. Giant Mechanical Spider Is A Tad Intimidating
