The Man at Burning Man: Photo credit: Michael Holden
Each year, tens of thousands of aspirants, some Bacchanalian, some serene, some creative, some banal, yet all adventurous, converge on the Black Rock Desert for the Burning Man festival. For a few days, a massive city sprawls on an ancient dry lake bed in the alkali dust, and a bunch of dirty hippies and/or cultural pilgrims gather to be very, very weird. In the process of expressing this weirdness, some incredibly majestic, technologically advanced, and downright breathtaking art is displayed. Many in the KWF community have deep connections to Burning Man. In 2017, some of us returned to the wide expanse of "the Playa" to experience the art, and be inspired. Here are some of the highlights.
MÚCARO
MÚCARO was a 32 ft. tall interactive sculpture made completely out of recycled wood. Conceived by production designer Nino Alicea, this delightful owl was dedicated to Nino’s mother and teachers around the world.
Plucking at our heartstrings with equal parts nostalgia, wisdom, and playfulness, this massive owl never failed to enchant Burners of all ages. Nino's vision for MÚCARO reached its final expression when the sculpture was burned in a spectacular nighttime event at the festival, watched by thousands of admirers.
The sculpture's shape and look were a nod to a Puerto Rican owl species and a tribute to Nino's childhood home. In the wake of this year's tragic hurricanes, MÚCARO's spirit lives on, with Nino and his untiring build crew continuing their work as fundraisers and organizers for relief efforts on the island of Puerto Rico.
Plucking at our heartstrings with equal parts nostalgia, wisdom, and playfulness, this massive owl never failed to enchant Burners of all ages. Nino's vision for MÚCARO reached its final expression when the sculpture was burned in a spectacular nighttime event at the festival, watched by thousands of admirers.
The sculpture's shape and look were a nod to a Puerto Rican owl species and a tribute to Nino's childhood home. In the wake of this year's tragic hurricanes, MÚCARO's spirit lives on, with Nino and his untiring build crew continuing their work as fundraisers and organizers for relief efforts on the island of Puerto Rico.
Tree of Ténéré
The original Ténéré Tree was a solitary acacia in the Sahara Desert in Niger, well known to travelers on ancestral caravan routes in the region. It stood alone for decades before succumbing, the last of a group of trees that grew when the Nigerian desert was less arid than it is today. The legendary tree lives on in the Black Rock Desert as an exquisitely detailed sculpture featuring branching boughs of leaves, each leaf an individually addressable light in an array of thousands of LEDs.
The array was driven by custom-designed software running on a Mac OS computer. Onlookers were invited to rest in the tree's shade, climb up its trunk, or simply bask in the ever-changing light show generated by its LED array.
The array was driven by custom-designed software running on a Mac OS computer. Onlookers were invited to rest in the tree's shade, climb up its trunk, or simply bask in the ever-changing light show generated by its LED array.
ILUMINA
Ilumina is an interactive sculpture of LEDs and geometric star shapes embedded in sweeping, lit curves shaped like segments of a conic section. Most of the time, you encounter it in its inert, idle state. Participants climb into a series of sensor stations, where biofeedback encourages each one into a steady state of heart rhythms as measured by a HRV algorithm.
Once all participants attain a relaxed and steady heart rate, Ilumina's stunning light and sound show activates, delivering a powerful aural, visual, visceral, even spiritual experience. It's profound, it's jaw-dropping, it's a really cool merging of technology and art. Check out the video preview below:
Once all participants attain a relaxed and steady heart rate, Ilumina's stunning light and sound show activates, delivering a powerful aural, visual, visceral, even spiritual experience. It's profound, it's jaw-dropping, it's a really cool merging of technology and art. Check out the video preview below:
Mayan Warrior
Burning Man features mobile "art cars", high-decibel, viscera-shaking sound systems, typically built on the chassis of heavy trucks or buses. Superstructures of art, light, and sculpture are then built around the DJ platforms. Mayan Warrior is one such art car, a collaborative project between artists, technologists, musicians, and producers from Mexico City and California. Originally built to celebrate the ascendancy of Mexican electronic music, Mayan Warrior's thematic elements also offer a respectful bow to the ancient traditions from which Mexico's modern musical and visual arts culture have grown.
Seeing Mayan Warrior on the open playa looking like a majestic war barge, hearing the rhythmic thud of its war drums calling ravers from all quandrants, watching its lasers and flames firing into the sky, one could almost imagine Quetzalcoatl in the heavens, nodding its feathered head in time to the music.
Seeing Mayan Warrior on the open playa looking like a majestic war barge, hearing the rhythmic thud of its war drums calling ravers from all quandrants, watching its lasers and flames firing into the sky, one could almost imagine Quetzalcoatl in the heavens, nodding its feathered head in time to the music.
Exploring the open Playa never fails to amaze, delight, bewilder, amuse, inspire, and confuse. Adventuring on it can lead to delightful discoveries, experiences, and connections. And in a deeply capitalized, highly commercialized, often commoditized world of mass media, Burning Man's art, at its best, is a refreshing departure from the norm. And while being a Burner is no substitute for being a creative, mindful human, what one finds out there in the desert can bring great inspiration back home in the "default" world.
So look for KWF's friends and family in the Deep Playa from time to time. We'll be there, in awe and wonder.
So look for KWF's friends and family in the Deep Playa from time to time. We'll be there, in awe and wonder.
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