Trusty Daniel Terdiman from CNet News wrote this article on a new documentary called Burn on the Bayou and the Burners Without Borders crew who have done so much with so little for so many abandoned in need:
‘Burn on the Bayou’ showcases Burning Man participants’ post-Katrina relief efforts
The saucy Violet Blue over at tiny nibbles posted this insightful article from Lauren Berlant called Against Sexual Scandal.
I could not agree more with the notion that our society is rabid with the self-righteous and self-fearful, liberally pointing fingers at one another while hiding behind their own denial of sex. I am tired of living among powerful children who would judge all by blind status quo double standards for no more reason really than fear or self loathing (or, more likely, to turn a buck in network ratings or votes in some campaign).
I have written a bit about Burning Man influences in the default world in the past on this blog. I’d like to add a vehement wish to invite just a touch of the open and trusting creative and sexual environment of the Playa into our often soul crushing society of self fear and hatred, not to mention the value of basic human needs like play and having fun.
In other words, I hope we can be more healthy as humans in body, mind, and spirit both on and off the Playa.
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)
Amazing Jellyfish from Y12K (PDF), by Jared Gallardo, Salt Lake City, UT
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
Chasing the American Dream, by Hedy Siroco, Wynnewood PA
DreamYourTopia Checkpoint (also at ePlaya), by DADARA, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Drum Wagons, by Quill Hyde, Brooklyn NY
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
Hydrogen Economy, by False Profit Labs, San Francisco, CA
Illusion, by Benson Trent, Provo, UT
Ketchup, by Bruce Bender, Marshall, NC
Legends of America, by James Cole, Auburn, CA
Lepidodgera, by Rachel Norman, Mike Thielvoldt, Lira Filippini, and Jake Haskell, Palo Alto, CA
Man Gwyn Man Draw?, by Defaid Daf a Joe, Wales
McEnlightenment, by Michael Brown and Violet McKeon, San Diego, CA
Mutopia, by the Flaming Lotus Girls, San Francisco, CA
Net Work, by David Bengali, New York, NY
Nowhere Ominibus, by Pete Johnson, London, UK
Pictures of You – Images from Iran, by Yechdosay Chahar, Crested Butte, CO
Pool, by Jen Lewin, Boulder, CO
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
Shiva Vista, by Dave King, Reno, NV
Shrine of Fortuna, by Art Farm, Graton, CA
Shrine to the Oven Mitt, by Steven Goodman, Mountain View, 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.
Swarm, by Michael Prados, San Francisco, CA
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, by Mister Jellyfish, Sparks, NV
Who Is Zsu Zsu?
“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 same folks who brought us the lovely Tasseograph Tea Temple in 2007 have received a grant to build the 2008 Temple!
The Basura Sagrada (“sacred trash”) is a recycled trash project and they are looking for materials donations as well as elbow grease.
UPDATE — The race has been rescheduled to October 10-13th, 2008.
CNet News offers up news on the upcoming alternative fuels only (and acquired sans moneys) race from Berkeley to Vegas on July 4th weekend. This should definitely push the limits of a burgeoning fossil-less fuel transportation industry… I hope… It’s like Road Warrior but fighting for coffee grounds and chicken poop instead of gasoline, but is in the desert, while ending up in the bizarre casino/marriage town of Vegas, not the dystopian out back.
Escape From Berkeley: An alternative-powered fuels race to Vegas
The race is organized by Jim Mason of the Shipyard Artists’ Collective and a long-time burner and playa artist including many projects including the recent Mechabolic. Mason on the race:
“…NASA scientists and junkyard fabricators once again square off in the perennial battle of engineering prowess and creative excess, this time with bragging rights for saving-the-world somewhat hanging in the balance,” wrote Escape from Berkeley organizer Jim Mason in an e-mail announcing the new race. “Where DARPA had the Grand Challenge, the rednecks the Cannonball Run, the truckers a Convoy, and the hippies a bunch of WVO buses broken down on the side of the road, now the collected geek tribes propose to start their ‘engines’ on something other than a petroleum-based fuel, and cause their varied schemes for land-based transport to not be in Berkeley, and somehow, by some means, show up in Las Vegas three days later, using only fuels/power/motive force scavenged ‘for free’ along the route.”
Good ol’ Laughing Squid reports on a brand shiny new online radio station based on Burning Man Information Radio with an eclectic mix of programming:
Listen now by grabbing the streaming address file that should activate in any streaming player like iTunes.
Their mission in the default world:
Uh oh, now I can pretend I’m in BRC all day everyday. All I have to do is play really bad psytrance on multiple conflicting-beat stereos in other parts of my house on high volume with too much muddy bass to replicate that zesty sonic flavor of the Playa chaos!
The Seattle Times reports that Mike Ross, the artist who brought “Big Rig Jig” to the Playa in 2007, won a grant from the Sound Transit organization to build a large sculpture in a new light rail station:
“Big Rig Jig” artist lands Sound Transit gig
Apparently, the art administrator from Sound Transit had seen the work on the Playa and Mike was chosen out of 120 fellow artists.
UPDATE — June 12, 2008
There is apparently much controversy to be had over Mike Ross’ upcoming jet plane sculpture in Seattle. Even the comments for this post below were briefly populated by a somewhat irate gentleman. Today, a news story just arrived concerning a recent press statement by Ross — again — concerning his neutral intentions on the project.
Artist again defends proposed sculpture
Many think work is inappropriate in a time of war
What a drag as this will no doubt mean the city of Seattle will eventually balk at the notion that some people might have their delicate feathers ruffled. I say delicate because, like the commenter mentioned previously, the worst is assumed loudest and first.
Of course a sculpture of jet planes as reassembled must represent the obvious and morbid image of a deadly crash. From commenter: “Perhaps we should hope Ross’s[sic] plans don’t include a few broken and bleeding bodies for authenticity.”
Yet, Ross keeps explaining how the vision is playful and reflective of natural elegance and peace, using the soft image of a “heron taking flight” as inspiration. Oddly, I doubt many, except for a few long-haired and ignored peaceniks, would raise a stink if the city wanted decommission a tank in a public space as a blatant symbol of war and support thereof. Showing the actual object of war, as a symbol of war, in all its deadly might and aggression, would be normal and therefore acceptable. “Support the Troops!” through blind support of war.
In contrast, re-envisioning a symbol of war, such as a jet fighter, as an object of grace, beauty, and peace is decried as a callous act of disrespect to the whole world. Good lord, what priorities we have as a nation! We’re so absorbed in an age-old culture of violence and hatred to forward our good ol’ American values, that our standards are just plain twisted.
There’s no doubt in my mind we need a sculpture like Ross’ to help us break out of our deadly slumbers and reassemble the landscape of our inner and outer lives.
‘Torch with a Twist’ pays tribute to vaudeville
Detroit, 43, quickly assembled performers she knew from Detroit’s Theatre Bizarre performance space and the Burning Man arts festival in Nevada. Though many performers were part of the local leather and fetish party scene, their goal for this show was to create something less risqué and more innocent.
Apparently, Philip Rosedale, the creator of virtual community “Second Life”, was influenced by an epiphany he had while at Burning Man. It’s a unique vision coupled with a now functioning “virtual” community realization. Some of the art and costumed avatars are so Playa first life! Snip:
One thing that struck me was a long passage of Au’s about how much Rosedale’s 1999 visit to Burning Man, the annual countercultural arts festival held in the Nevada desert, influenced his view of what the virtual environment he was building should be.
“‘So you’d lay on the pillows,’ Rosedale recounts, eyes twinkling at the memory,” Au writes, “‘and you’d feel like an exotic Asian king, and you’re looking out on the parched (desert); the line of sun starts at the edge of the rugs, and you see that hot desert, and you imagine you’re Kublai Khan on a bender…They were just structures of the mind…It reinforced that idea that what we believe in or what we make of things is all that is real. It was unreal because everything was clearly made of found materials and was transitory. But it was real, because when you were there, it was real to you…It had this mystical quality that demolished the barriers between people.’”
Rosedale’s epiphany? There was a magic going on out there in the desert–a way that people dealt with each other and laid down their disbelief–with which he wanted to imbue his virtual world.
Read more: Book review: ‘The making of Second Life’ by Daniel Terdiman at CNet.
See the previous “Burning Life” post for more about virtual regional burns.
While this article is essentially an ad for the “General Dynamics Itronix XR-1 rugged laptop PC”, it could be useful for nerdy burners who need a reliable laptop on the Playa:
GCN Lab Review: The Itronix XR-1 rugged laptop survives heat sandstorms and careless handling
