The Black Rock Design Institute Presents “An Evening With David Best”
Thursday, December 13, at 6pm
Nevada Museum of Art
180 West Liberty Street
Reno, NV

Temple of Juno by David Best and The Temple Crew, 2012

Internationally acclaimed sculptor and architect David Best has created seven temples for Black Rock City, including the first “Temple of the Mind” in 2000, and the “Temple of Juno” in 2012. With inspiring scale and intricacy, David’s architecturally and psychologically significant structures are striking on the vast Black Rock Desert canvas. More importantly, David’s designs serve as a monumental community touchstone for Black Rock Citizens, and for the lives they have touched, culminating in a serenely beautiful burn. As many testify, David often gives spontaneous, deeply insightful, and emotionally moving talks about the intent, meaning, and experiences of the Temples. This lecture will be a wonderful opportunity to hear David’s deeper insights and broader outlooks on these phenomenal works.

Temple of Juno, 2012

Kerry Rohrmeier, cultural geography researcher and urban planner, will also be giving an introductory presentation on “Welcome to Black Rock City”. In studying Black Rock City through varied cultural, geographic, and historical lenses, Kerry will share some emerging lessons for participants in the creation of our yearly ephemerapolis.

Museum doors open for the evening at 5pm with refreshments and socializing. Lecture begins at 6pm. Tickets are now available here.

Black Rock Design Institute, the host for the evening, is a not-for-profit 501c3 comprised of Reno-area designers dedicated to improving our urban environment. More on the Black Rock Design Institute can be found here.

(Content generously provided by Nathan Aaron Heller and Kerry Rohrmeier.)

Burning Man Founders give their report-out at the annual Staff Retreat.

Last week, 60 Burning Man staffers got together for our annual Staff Retreat, an intensive 4-day offsite gathering wherein we examine the state of Burning Man (the event itself, our organization, and the worldwide growth of our culture). We examine where we stand, where we want to be, and how to get there.

This has been an annual tradition since 1999, when the meeting consisted of a small handful of folks. And while it has taken different shapes and forms over the years, this time is used to look at the challenges we’re facing, the successes we’ve achieved, and the goals we want to shoot for. We also bring in experts to help us develop the skills we need to succeed as an organization. And let me tell you, the work is practically non-stop. The group hardly ‘retreats’ from Burning Man; in reality we collectively dive even deeper into the work we do and the roles we play.

Walking through Burning Man’s history of staff trainings since 2001.

This year there were extensive discussions around growth … what challenges come along with the growth of both the Burning Man community and the Burning Man organization, and how can we manage them? What kind of pressures are the various Burning Man departments facing as a result of this growth? How can we work better collectively to address them? What leadership skills can we bring to the table to ensure that we deal with them effectively?

The group engaged in activities to help us deliver quality feedback to our co-workers, skill-building sessions to help us make better decisions, and opportunities to evaluate how we’re measuring up against our 5-year goals (and 3-year goals, and 1-year goals). We read feedback emails from participants about this year’s event in Black Rock City and discussed strategies for making improvements.

Megan reading through the Participant Feedback binder.

These discussions are always rewarding, but the best work is arguably done in the evening hours after long, full days of work sessions.  That’s when we’re able to connect with our fellow staffers, learn more about each other and what makes us tick, and build the bonds that allow us to work so well together … the connections which make us as much a family as we are a business.

Of course, being the Burners that we are, the evenings were peppered with impromptu bonfires, musical performances, storytelling sessions, irreverent card games, crafting, Tarot-reading, hikes, hot-tubbing, poker lessons, and just taking some precious time to enjoy each other’s company.

The “Stick Man” bonfire.

As intensive as each day was, the passion, dedication and brilliance that each attendee brings to the conversation is truly inspiring, and bodes well for Burning Man’s future. 2012 has been a challenging year to say the least, but the quality thinking shown at this retreat proved that we’ll be able to handle anything the future throws at us.

Tales From The Playa are dreams and memories of events that took place at Burning Man, as told by its participants.

Many wonderful stories were left in the comments on our “Hey, First Timers! How Was Your Burn?” post, but one in particular stopped us in our tracks. I wrote its author, Paul French, to see if he’d let us reprint it as a post of its own, and to invite him to contribute more posts to the Burning Blog — it was that good.

He agreed, and at the same time reminded me that we’d met on playa that year, randomly, at Distrikt, where we enjoyed a very pleasant chat. They say the playa gives you what you need, whether you know what that is or not, and well, there ya go — another case of playa serendipity. And with that, here’s Paul’s story:

There is no English translation for the first gift I received at Burning Man. It was not a necklace or a bracelet or other trinkety item of raiment. Instead, it left me exposed, across a stretch of seven extraordinary days on the playa, to both brutal sadness and the gates of personal freedom. It was gifted to me by Mitch, from Chicago, when I told him of my plans to travel to the Northern shores of Brazil.

Photo by Michael Holden

It was a feeling.

A single word.

Saudade.

As Mitch explained it to me, saudade is a Portuguese word that came to describe a sadness for those who set off on long journeys to sea, or to battle, but never returned. More mysteriously, it’s the anticipation of longing. It’s the duality of envisioning, before you should, a future swamped with nostalgia.

It was with me as I explored the customs and structures of Burning Man, where the most inhospitable place on the planet is transformed, for a fleeting week, into the most creative space in the universe. Saudade was coiled and fused with the ten principles of Burning Man, which inspire participants to carry the playa’s spirit back beyond the mountains and into rebooted lives. Read more »

Jeff Steinmetz reports from Australia’s Regional Burn …

Yes, there are Kangaroos on the edges of the forest, home of the Australia Regional Burn, “Burning Seed”.

Local Artist – Burning Seed Gate Entrance

Jeff here, fresh out of the Australian bush (The Matong Forest). I’m writing about the experience while it’s still fresh in my mind, ripe with connection and excitement to be part of something in its early formative years. Now in its third year, SEED drew 600 participants to its week-long burn in the Matong State forest near Wagga Wagga, NSW. This location provides a journey of about six hours from either Sydney or Melbourne.

The trip took shape while we were on the Black Rock Desert, where we were able to network with Regional contacts from around the world. My travel partner Wally Bomgaars (aka Odwally), Playa Safety Council Manager, also made the trek, and worked to craft a custom Ranger training with Melbourne-based Will Marshall, team lead for the Burning Seed Rangers (Wally and his culinary arts were also appreciated in the kitchen and the event – Seed didn’t know they were going to get a chef too!). Traveling together with Wally, it was my hope that the Burning Man Project would continue to personally connect with the Regional events. It was a time for me to listen to their team, embrace their differences, and generally be available to understand areas where the Project can be helpful. The long and short of it – they have something special brewing in Australia. Read more »

Join us!

WHAT: “People in Motion” Screening plus Q&A with the Filmmakers and Artists, Cedric Dahl, Lonnie Tisdale, Brian Orosco
WHEN: Thursday, October 18th, 6:45PM-9PM
WHERE: Burning Man HQ, 995 Market Street, 15th Floor San Francisco, CA 94103

Those familiar with the training discipline parkour–or “free running”–know that its push to move creatively and freely throughout the world is more than an exercise routine, it’s a philosophy for life.  “People in Motion”, in its focus on parkour, showcases the potential people have to move through time and space.  Shot along the West Coast and in Black Rock City and using an original score and composite editing, the film inspires viewers with its fresh perspective on how the individual can move creatively through a number of environments.  Just as Burning Man’s Ten Principles inspire Burners to come together as a collaborative community in the face of the harsh Black Rock Desert, parkour’s philosophy of overcoming obstacles is about defeating and adapting to both the mental and physical barriers which surround us every day.

The ninety minute film will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers and parkour practitioners Cedric Dahl, Lonnie Tisdale, Brian Orosco.  The film begins at 7:30p.  Light appetizers and a wine and beer bar will be open during the first thirty minutes of the event.  Q&A to follow the film.

To learn more, check out the film’s website at https://peopleinmotionmovie.com.

The Burning Man Project is proud to support Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) in their collaboration with Intersection for the Arts (IFTA), IDEO and Rebar, as they produce the Urban Prototyping (UP) Festival. The festival takes place on October 20th on the blocks around 5th and Mission Streets in San Francisco.

Here’s an excerpt from their press release, describing the purpose for the festival:

The past several years have seen a surge in new forms of civic engagement, with teams of citizens joining together to build apps and projects that use technology to address contemporary urban issues. Now, a new initiative is bringing this same open-source “hacking” mentality to the physical realm. Building on the parallel rise of “tactical urbanism”–the use of small-scale, informal designs to seed long-term changes to the city landscape– the Urban Prototyping (UP) Festival aims to support new design and technology projects that improve the urban environment by creating more inspiring, livable and engaging public spaces.

The San Francisco UP Festival will take place on October 20, 2012, and will feature over 20 model projects set up in streets and parking lots in a 3-block area around the 5M Project at 5th and Mission. Each project embodies the concept of open source and will be documented so that they can be replicated in any city worldwide. Model projects range from the whimsical to practical and include outdoor gardens, urban playscapes, glowing crosswalks, public urinals, urban parasol structures, and much more. The projects will give everyone the chance to see firsthand how these rapidly prototyped urban interventions can change and challenge the way we use, share, and contribute to our public spaces.

Urbanist-minded Burners are encouraged to go and participate in this innovative festival about creative use of public spaces — your experience with Black Rock City surely has given you an idea or two to offer in that regard!

Tales From The Playa are dreams and memories of events that took place at Burning Man, as told by its participants.

Photo by Spencer Jones

Burning Man 2012 is a wrap! And now we’re curious … what did you think? We specifically want to hear from first-time Burners about your experience.

What were your impressions going in? How did the reality differ from your expectations? What did you get out of your time on playa? What did you learn? What are you taking home with you?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Oh and also: welcome! We’re glad to have you with us!

And if you’d like to give specific feedback about the event (good or bad), please email it to feedback here: feedback (at) burningman.com before November 1st … that’s our official Feedback Loop channel.

15-Year old Nikki Peress reunited with parents 24 hours after being reported missing.

Black Rock City, Nev. — Burning Man organizers, in conjunction with local law enforcement, successfully located Nicole “Nikki” Peress, a 15-year-old girl who had been reported missing at the event Thursday afternoon. Following an investigation by the Pershing County Sheriff’s Department, Peress’s disappearance was classified as a runaway child.

When Peress was reported missing, Burning Man initiated its missing child protocol, including an Amber Alert and citywide shutdown operations, whereby all outbound traffic and airport departures are halted. Burning Man’s Black Rock Rangers posted flyers throughout Black Rock City and distributed public service announcements via Burning Man Information Radio.

“The system worked,” said Marian Goodell, Director of Communications for Burning Man. “We have a system set up to reunite minors who have become involuntarily separated from their parents, and it’s also effective for voluntarily-separated ones. This is a very tight-knit community, and it’s gratifying that our participants really step up to help in situations like this. We’re very happy that Nikki has been returned to her parents.”

Peress was found Friday afternoon when a participant recognized her, and brought her to a Burning Man medical station, whereupon she was reconnected with her parents.

About Burning Man:
For 22 years, the Black Rock Desert outside Reno, Nev., has been home to the increasingly popular and influential Burning Man arts event. Started on a beach in San Francisco in 1986, the event now attracts more than 60,000 participants annually, from every U.S. state and 22 countries. For media inquiries, please call 415-906-2441.