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!

Dismantling The Universe Revolves Around YOU, photo Barbarino

The Art is disappearing out here overnight, with a couple of the non-burnable huge pieces like Zach Coffin’s The Universe Revolves Around YOU and Pier 2 in the process of being taken down. The playa’s pretty much empty now with only the Man pile still burning, the Dragon Smelter and Bone Tree hanging around the Esplanade, and I’m told about four pieces out there waiting to be pulled up. Burn piles out where David Best’s Temple of Juno, The Man and Otto Von Danger’s  Burn Wall Street stood, are being tended to by those cleanup crews.

Read more »

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

Altheus gave us the view from on high once again.

To coin a phrase, boy does time fly when you’re having a good time.

While the rest of the city was out enjoying themselves on the last night that the Man would be standing, crews began getting him ready for the big burn.

You might think that setting the Man afire is nothing more complex than simply setting a torch to the guy, but you’d be wrong. There are a lot of preparations, and they began Friday night in a blowing windstorm that just wouldn’t quit. First the Otic Oasis crew got to work taking down the Pistil , the climbable sculpture in the center of the Man base. We had talked to Gregg Fleishman earlier in the day, and we discovered that he began making sculptures like the Pistil and the Otic Oasis as play structures for the grammar school that his parents founded in Culver City. “It’s not really much different,” he was saying of the Oasis. In case you were curious, it might comfort you to know that the Pistil had been load-tested to withstand 25,000 pounds, so figuring an average weight of  about 160 pounds per person, the crew knew that as many as 150 people could be on it at one time without exceeding load. And really, there was no way that 150 people could FIT on it at one time, so things were exceedingly safe.

There was also a  special reinforcing plate at the base of the panels at the top of the work that made them both flexible and strong – “It’s the flexibility that’s important,” Gregg said, “because that relieves stress.”

Even as the Otic crew was taking apart the Pistil, other crews were taking down the truly wonderful lighting from the inside of the base. One member of the Man crew told us that it was the first time that Crimson Rose said that she didn’t want to see the base burn. “This should be installed somewhere in Reno,” Brian said Crimson told him. “She’s never said anything like that before.”

Still, the work to get the Man ready to burn went on. After the lighting was taken out, other crews would be installing explosives and accelerants, the better for a big show. Joe the Builder always want to make sure that the Man burns in good time, and we think it’s one of his special pleasures to make sure the fires rage.

The Otic Oasis crew went to work disassembling the Pistil.

Altheus took us up 120 feet in a lift  while the work was going on, the better to get a good view of the Man and the scene in general. As we said, the wind was really blowing, and as we looked down,  the sand blowing across the desert floor below us looked like water. It became easy to imagine this whole Black Rock Desert under 500 feet of water, as it was a couple of hundred thousand years ago.

It struck us again too, as we watched all the people working on the Man, how short a time it is that everything made here stays pretty. It seems like the Man and the base were finished only days ago, and yet here it was, closed to visitors,  never to be seen again in the same way.

This beautiful city is temporal, and the time of its shining is infinitesimally brief. Read more »

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

“Nothing says ‘thank you’ like something.”

That’s one of the signs that’s carried along on the DPW’s annual parade through the streets of Black Rock City, as  worker crews take a ride, do a little showing off and offer  BRC residents a chance to show some love.

The mutant vehicles straight out of “Mad Max,” and some very striking individuals (“pirate carny tricksters” as Niko Peachez puts it)  start out at the Depot and make their way up 5:30. They take a couple of turns and go through some neighborhoods, to the general alarm of  some of the populace.

Overall, though, people seem to get it, and they rush up with a can or two of cold beverages, all the better to keep the restoration of the playa sufficiently lubricated.

There was some unlikely music at the “rave” that followed the parade.

This year’s parade ended with a round-up in front of the Heavy Machinery yard, where Weld Boy had engineered a DPW dirt rave. An art car played Katy Perry tunes and “Call Me Maybe” and other wildly unlikely songs. It should be noted that the DPW lapped it up and danced the afternoon away with a fury.

It should also be noted that “Free Bird” was also on the soundtrack, and everyone knew why, and everyone could see what Rachel was going through. It was a glorious day for a parade, but obviously there was some bittersweet mixed in with the good times. Read more »

Photo by Sidney Erthal

There are a number of “SimulBurns” happening around the world … if you can’t make it to Black Rock City, but want to feel the Burn, and you’re near one of these areas, hook up! (Note that these aren’t official Burning Man events. Your mileage may vary.)

Location: North Bay Area B.F.H.C. (die guessing) — Undisclosed Location in Sebastopol, CA
Date: Thurs Aug 30 @ 4pm through Mon Sept 3 @ 4pm
Name: Captain Cluck
Description: This a rad, 3rd annual, 4-day, under-the-radar event on an awesome property with a superb cast of seasoned burners. Due to space limitations, this event is INVITE ONLY. We may already be maxed out, but if not, we will pull names from a wait list. If interested, please send us your contact info and a Facebook link and tell us why you are jonesing for a BM-like experience. Bear in mind, compelling theme camps or large pieces of artwork or other unique contributions to the event may put you on top of the list. Please send inquiries to: howhuman here: howhuman (at) comcast.net Thanks!

Name: Pete Wyatt
Event: Hekeburn
Location: The Domes, Waiheke Island, Auckland, New Zealand
Date: Sept 1st from whenever
Description: We are not going to Burningman this year instead The Man is going to burn here in our Home of the Domes. Grab your finest Playa gear and other essential supplies and head to Waiheke Island for a Full Moon and other burner mayhem. Contact Pirate Captain Lumos on +64210572722 or lumosnz here: lumosnz (at) gmail.com. PS: I will be taking a vehicle over to the island so I will have room for your extra gear (and I will sell it to the highest bidder upon arrival on the island).

Location: Central (contact for details) Christchurch Canterbury, New Zealand
Event: Burning Man sucks, so we’re not going!
Date: September 2nd 11am-11pm
Name: Hippie Tim
Description: A party to celebrate the burning of the Man while our friends with the means to do so enjoy what’s shaping up to the dustiest year ever on the Playa.

The Man burns at about 4:00PM NZ time so we’ll have it up on the big screen so we can all celebrate, hopefully it won’t be too dusty for us to be able to see it! And throughout the party we’ll have the live stream running on it so we can all check out the art etc etc, it will be as if we’re there!

Come dressed in your finest costumes (if you’ve got something that is still playafied then bring that!) and we’ll do our best to mentally transport ourselves to the Black Rock Desert. We’ll have a themed bar running and will be getting right properly day time drunk! We’ll have a BBQ going for dinner so please bring something to cook and share with everyone. If anyone has any installations they’re making for Kiwiburn then feel free to bring along models and drawings to share with everyone so we can all get excited!

Feel free to bring anyone and everyone whether they have been out to the desert or not to enjoy this lovely event! It will be a great chance to show newbies what we’re all about. Feel free to participate! This is a Do-ocracy, if you want to do something DO IT! Drop a line to hippie here: hippie (at) kiwiburn.com for more details.

Location: Thames Beach, London
Event: Balsa Blighty
Date: 9/1/2012 7pm – high tide
Name: Miss Cheeky
Description: Balsa Man London regional Tiny burn on the Thames beach.

Location: SF Bay Area, 20600 Aldercroft Heights, Los Altos, CA
Event: Summer Blaze: The Orphans
Date: 8/29/2012 – 10/3/2012
Name: Hibbard Engler
Description: http://orphans.kcd.com Summer Blaze: The Orphans
An Alternative to the alternative! We will have up to 1200 people gather at Lupin Lodge for a Burner friendly event. There are 30 artistic events and 12 DJ’s going on to handle the unticketed. The Blaze goes from Wednesday August 29th to Monday morning, September 3. Phone hotline is 408-310-5297 email orphans here: orphans (at) kcd.com

Location: Netherlands, Magneet Festival Grounds Amsterdam Noord-Holland
Event: Burning Mill
Date: 9/1/2012 23:00:00
Name: Marco Antonio Morales
Description: http://www.magneetfestival.nl/idea/burning-night We celebrate Burning Night at Magneet Festival honouring something unique to the Netherlands and relevant to this year’s theme (Fertility 2.0) in a uniquely Dutch interpretation of fertility: the ubiquitous Windmill, which has turned otherwise unusable land into fertile soil across the Netherlands.

The Windmill will be a beacon of expression and interaction – until September 1st. On this night come along wearing your best Burning Man outfit and *no shoes*, and we will set the Windmill alight after a celebratory ceremony of fire and non-amplified music. (drums, guitars and other instruments)

The resulting ashes will be mixed with fertilizer and a tree-pot built on Sunday, so the following weekend a meiboom tree can be planted to complete the fertility circle – just in time for all those returning from the Burning Man to join, adding their own ashes from the Man. Ribbons will be available where you can write your wishes for the coming year and tie them to the tree until the end of the Magneet Festival.

Get involved, participate, find out how you can help, dance around the fire – and make this Burn one to remember!

An Aspen Environment researcher talks at the Burning Nerds Party/Ashram Galactica/2011 photo by Cesar Cortes

Fertility for the Burning Nerds this year means more, More, and MORE! More workshops, symposiums, activities and parties! We even have a totem that you’ll see out and about (an abstract Ivory Tower thanks to Captain Goldstar) and a whole bunch of soap boxes for you (and us) to stand on. Check the back page of the What Where When guide for the full listing of nerdy activities!

Annual Burning Nerds Party-Mixer – ON PLAYA

LOCATION: Ashram Galactica (8:15 and Edelweiss)

DATE & TIME: Friday, August 31, 2012. 2:30-5:00 PM

WHAT: Enjoy a cocktail while we reflect on the big academic questions at the finest Hotel in Black Rock City.

Please Join us and RSVP to academics here: academics (at) burningman.com

Nerds bonding @ the Burning Nerds Party/Ashram Galactica 2011. Photo credit Cesar Cortes

RSVP FOR THE BURNING NERDS PARTY: academics here: academics (at) burningman.com

Burning Nerds Homepage 

Permission for Photo/Publications (Academics)

Facebook (Burning Nerds)

Future’s Past by Kate Raudenbush (the starting point), photo by George Post

What: Burning Man Project Presents….THE GREAT SCAVENGER HUNT!
When: Saturday July 28, noon – 4 PM
Where: Hayes Green near “Futures Past” sculpture by Kate Raudenbush

Hayes Street and Octavia , San Francisco, CA

NO SPECTATORS DAY! is JULY 31st …as officially recognized in San Francisco by Mayoral Proclamation. Yep, true story.

The Burning Man Project has decided to celebrate the weekend before with the second annual GREAT SAN FRANCISCO SCAVENGER HUNT on Saturday, July 28th.

Step up! Participate! Have fun! Learn more here.

Here’s a blog written by Tovah King, who organized last year’s Scavenger Hunt and recalls what it was like: Read more »

Remember that giant horse burning away on the playa last year? Here’s your chance to learn more about it. “Black Rock Horse” portrays the journey of 2011′s Trojan Horse art piece from creation to destruction. The thirty minute film will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker, Todd Darling, and Trojan Horse artists Dan Fox, Josh Lawrence, Ariel Sutro, and Linda Jensen Darling. Check out the film’s trailer. The film begins at 7:30pm. Light appetizers and a wine and beer bar will be open during the first thirty minutes of the event.

July 19th
7-8:30PM
Burning Man HQ
995 Market Street, San Francisco