Whether you can twiddle it, tweak it or twirl it, Burning Man art oftentimes requires the viewer to somehow complete the piece through their engagement with it. With interactive art, the viewer becomes an active part of the experience, rather than a passive observer. They become a participant.
Fish car, entrapped
And an awesome corollary to this is the unexpectedcombinatorial whimsy that spontaneously happens in what is essentially a community of 50,000+ performance artists spending a week in a giant dustyidea factory. Here’s a place where you’ve got fish, and you’ve got fishermen. You’ve got maids, and you’ve got dirty people. You’ve got folks running around in animal costumes, and you’ve got Animal Control officers. You’ve got platforms, and you’ve got performers. And you’ve got an appreciative audience that might just get involved, given the opportunity.
This, of course, makes for a fabulous melting pot to brew up those magic playa moments … those serendipitous vignettes you stumble across and find yourself uttering “Oh my God … only at Burning Man” before chuckling, shaking your head, and smiling as you head off to the next adventure. Yes, if Burning Man offers us one thing, it’s the permission to rediscover our inner child … to be spontaneous, and PLAY.
So here you go … here’s a quick collection of some great ones that were caught on film. If you know of others, pop a link to them in the comments, and tell us the story! Read more »
“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.” – Neil Gaiman
We love to hate the dust. It gets into everything, it sticks to anything. What it touches is marked for the remainder of it’s significantly shortened lifespan. I believe we ingest a lot more of it than we imagine. Fighting it — believe me, I’ve tried — is useless.
But I find that when I quit fighting and embrace the dust, and I mean truly become one with it and of it and in it, it becomes almost impossible to become actually dirty. And my camera gets a magical Shield of Immunity against playa, and so I go out and shoot what the dust reveals.
12:01 AM Monday, August 29th 2011: must be time to burn. The calendar says so.
Burning Man is in full swing. There are hundreds…no, clearly thousands of auto headlamps visible on Gate Road, something that Danger Ranger once referred to as the “String of Pearls”. Swarms of clean people are pouring out of the radial streets onto the iinner playa…and I just saw one guy belly flop with joy into the dust. And the art. The art is up, and more is coming. I can’t see it all. I can’t shoot it all. I can barely even decide which of the 3000 images I’ve captured in the last few days to display here.
So, without further ado, here’s a small sample of what Burning Man 2011 has in store for you.
One of the Black Rock Arts Foundation‘s 2009 Grantees, Cardboardia in Moscow, put on a Haute Couture Fashion Show recently and it is delightful. It put a big smile on my face!
That moment when you’re leaning against the railing of some art car, dazed, head lolling to the music. It’s chilly and late, and you wonder if your night is over. Then again, it isn’t up to you. It’s up to the driver of this mutant vehicle, and she doesn’t seem to be very interested in the 3 o’clock plaza, your corridor back to camp. Your fellow Burner pokes you in the ribs.
“Wake up!” he insists.
“I’m awake,” you concede.
Photo: Mischa Steiner
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The moment a passer-by smiles at you from underneath a carved, wooden wild boar mask with broken, black tusks.
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The moment the man stands up in the sweat hut, as naked as everyone, and starts singing “Hey Jude.” You wonder what his job is in the default world.
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Photo: Chance
The moment you slice your knuckle with the dull multi-tool trying to punch the last hole in the last tennis ball to cover the last stake, setting up your tent on the first day.
You would have been done, ready, finally at home, but now you’re washing blood and playa off your hand, opening last year’s dusty first aid kit, swabbing with alcohol, wrapping a bandage, and laughing at yourself. Read more »
