Quinn (aka Ghost Dancer) is Burning Man’s Nevada Properties Manager, which includes the year-round oversight of Burning Man’s Ranch (our staging and production facility), located north of the event site. Apropos of this year’s Art Theme, Fertility 2.0, we’d like to share this wonderful piece he wrote:

"Free!" Photograph by Betty Emirzian, 2009

Beyond judgments and dogma, Burning Man is at its core simply a stage of opportunity for people of all the world’s cultures to come together for a single week of the year to explore, exchange and express ourselves without the shackles of fear within an arena free of judgment, free of repression, free of self denial in an open free environment which supports and encourages that very intention.

For 7 short days; some 50,000 human beings join together in peaceful self expression, passionate self exploration and joyful giving of themselves to their fellow man without expectation of return or personal gain. This organic stage of opportunity for potential enlightened self experience is unique in the world and it happens but for a single week right here in our small sleepy little town of Gerlach.

Long ago the Constitution of the United States was drafted, many wars have been fought and many lives tragically sacrificed to protect your unalienable Right to Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness and the Right to “freely express yourself” while doing no harm to others. Yet there are many who would deny you these Rights or who simply choose to live life in a self-imposed prison of conditioned fear while sitting brain dead in front of the Television vegetating on what Paris Hilton’s wearing today.

Not the Burner…

These human beings of ecstatic spirit and a lust for creative living who discover and attend the Burning Man event are not content to just sit and watch TV nor passively accept whatever soulless doctrine is currently being spoon fed by the media. No my friends, Burners are in my observation the Peaceful Warriors of today’s potential humanity who are inspired by confronting the lifeless face of the mundane, and who burn within to awaken and live life to the fullest with an open fearless heart passionately driven to create and explore meaningful and lasting relationships with their fellow man in harmony with the natural world which supports us all.

As the gate opens and the people join together to spontaneously create Black Rock City, each and every ongoing moment is a completely unique creative expression unlike the moment before or after it, each person is more clearly seen and accepted for who they truly are through the process of contributing their individual perspective while simultaneously giving birth to more and more beauty and art inspiring deeper and deeper self reflection for both the individual and the collective experience. Basically it’s freedom of expression giving birth to greater levels of freedom of expression and mutual respect as a result, for 7 days and nights.

At least that’s how I see it.
You may call me a dreamer, I hope some day you’ll join me…

Thank you, Quinn!

Long-time Burner Philippe Glade has completed his new book “Black Rock City, NV: The Ephemeral Architecture of Burning Man“. This photographic encyclopedia contains 196 examples of the various forms of rugged, functional and temporary desert architecture to be found at Burning Man.  Philippe has painstakingly documented these structures over the course of 14 years, from 1996 to 2010.  Even if you’re not (but especially if you are) into architecture porn, this book will make a great addition to your Burning Man library.

Visit his blog at This is Black Rock City.

Rod Garrett, 2010. Photo by John Curley.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Rod Garrett, the long-time architect and designer of Black Rock City.

Since 1997, Rod has guided the Black Rock City urban design, overseeing its evolution from a functional plan to provide structure to a desert encampment of 10,000 to supporting a thriving metropolis of 50,000+, always with an eye towards form, function, elegance and the development of community. In addition to his urban planning role, Rod also designed Black Rock City’s major infrastructural elements, including the Center Camp Café, and every Man base since 1997.

Through his work over the years, Rod has made considerable contributions to the Burning Man community, for Rod’s particular genius was understanding the importance and power of design as it relates to social interaction and cultural development. Rod’s brilliance, passion and dedication to his craft will be sorely missed by the Burning Man organization.

Many of Rod’s writings about designing Black Rock City can be found in the Metropol Blog Series.

This year, the road encircling Black Rock City’s Center Camp will be named “Rod’s Road” in his honor.

In the spirit of the revolutionary interactive art of Burning Man and Black Rock Arts Foundation, we invite YOU to come out to celebrate and pARTicipate in the Mobule experience! Get involved with this great Black Rock Arts Foundation grantee project and help make it happen! It will be in New York, Black Rock City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, SOON. You know you want to, so make it happen!

Mobule is a kinetic, multi-media, mobile, interactive street art performance that connects people from different cities. Check out theses videos about Mobule on the project’s website: http://www.mobule.org/

The artist, Ludale, needs 3 partners for each performance. It’s really easy to help! All you do is:

- Invite people to participate in an interactive game (invite them to try on the ‘space helmet’ and control the Mobule. Who doesn’t want to wear a space helmet?!?)
- Interview people
- Help video the interviews
- Help pack up the Mobule after the show

Don’t one of those roles sound just like something you could do?

Here are the dates the Mobule needs help. All performances are 9:00 pm – 11:00 pm:

Monday, August 15th
Tuesday August 16th
Brooklyn Bridge park – New York.

Friday, August 19th
Pier 14, Near the Raygun Gothic Rocketship, by the Ferry building – San Francisco.

Saturday 20th, August 20th
Mission Delores Park – San Francisco.

August, 29th – September 4th
Center Camp – Black Rock City.

Friday, September 9th and Saturday 10th
Santa Monica Pier – Los Angeles.

Artist Ludale and the Mobule also need places to stay during their travels, and need a ride to and from Burning Man any day between 8/23 and 8/28!

Can you help? Email ludo here: ludo (at) ludale.fr if you can!

Want to find your friends on playa? Yeah, well, traditionally, it’s a crapshoot at best … you head out, run around all over the place, find amazing things along the way, meet new fabulous people to tickle your fancy (and whatever else), end up riding on a flame-throwing gazelle for a while, and … wait … where were we going again? Is that the sun coming up? Where are my pants?

While you can’t beat the serendipitous nature of trying to accomplish a goal (pffft) in Black Rock City, there is a solution if you actually want to find your friends out there. At least it’ll help aim you in the right direction, anyway (the rest is up to you … good luck with that).

The BurnerMap in Action

An intrepid Burner named Morgasm joined up with a few friends to create the BurnerMap. You can add your playa address to the map, and (the particularly nifty thing is that) only your Facebook friends can see where you are, so your privacy is maintained within the Facebook framework. (Don’t like Facebook? We understand. But still, suck it up … this is cool.)

And of course, in true Burner fashion, a “long-time Burner” is waging an awesome and vehement condemnation of such a flagrant trampling of our God-given right to spontaneity and serendipity!!! Arrrrrgh!!! To which we say: Damn straight! Unpack the pitchforks, Martha, grab the gasoline and the lighter (the wand-style one, in the drawer next to the stove … I think that one still has some fuel in it. No? Crap.) and let’s burn that damn thing!

Or, y’know, print it out and use it, if that’s how you wanna roll.

Note to my friends: if you show up at my camp pantsless on a flame-throwing gazelle, you’d better be packin’ whiskey.

Man, I LOVE this place. Things are in FULL SWING out in Black Rock City. Hope you’re here, safe and happy.

Man

Black Rock City has filled out nicely and the streets are alive with promenading citizens and there is just SO much to do. Everyone is having their various parties and socials, fashion shows, meet ups, performances,  so many events you can never make them all. The place is one big pie and there are an infinite number of pieces. Don’t worry about getting yours, there is more than you could ever handle.

Tutu Tuesday became Tophat Tuesday and we’ve been visiting and socializing and gifting ever since. My favorite sticker of the week so far is “It was on Fire when I got Here”. We’ve already had rain, a double rainbow and traffic all the way from Empire. We saw the City grow and the sound camps are up, pumping out their ever present soundtrack of ambient insanity.

JB made a really cool map for center camp

Some rumors I’ve heard include that next year’s THEME is going to be either “Life on Mars” or the “Baby Monkey in Underpants”. Out at 2:15 where the four story tall traffic cone is near DISORIENT they were giving balloon rides to people who weigh under 150lbs, but some girl was up there and one of the tethers broke so they had a little difficulty getting her down. I hope we don’t see a bunch of ravers flying away Saturday night after the burn, up, up and away. Be careful out there. We’ve got some dangerous ART this year. If you’re at the Mansonia Institute of Urban Studies in Center Camp this year stop by and see Dodger’s Pyrograph.

Megatropolis

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[Andrew Johnstone is an artist, muralist, 3D computer designer and enthusiastic geomapper. He was the creator of the first 3D fly-through simulation of Black Rock City (originally using Microsoft Flight Simulator software), and he crafts the 3D models of the Man and Man base found on the Burning Man website. He has been the Project Lead of the Burning Man Earth Project since its inception in 2005. This post is part of the Metropol Blog Series.]

In 2005, our city designer, Rod Garrett, saw Black Rock City as the perfect Petri dish for technological experiments in geographic data and digital inter-connection. He began to assemble an exceptional international team of creative innovators and programmers, and formed the Burning Man Earth Project.

Burning Man Earth

This volunteer team designed mapping and communication tools to enable Burning Man attendees to better locate themselves and others within the city, to communicate within the area, and to access and contribute information about artworks and events. The project was aimed at providing a managed digital space to encompass all of the physical facets of the Burning Man experience, both in real-time functionality and as a permanent archive.

It was imagined that this work also had implications beyond the limits of Black Rock City. These tools of “where enabling” would have application for populations isolated by natural disasters, refugee camps, or other devastations. The remoteness of the Burning Man event provides an ideal opportunity to test and adapt our programming into proven solutions for disaster relief. And as it is completely open-sourced, others are able to use and build upon it.

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[MachineGun Lily (aka Lily Rasel) works on Burning Man's Government Relations, Legal Affairs and External Relations Teams, and (because Burners are nothing if not versatile) lays out the Black Rock City plan in CAD. An accomplished fire performer, she publishes Kindle Magazine, and will attend UC Berkeley's Boalt Law School in the Fall of 2010. This post is part of the Metropol Blog Series.]

With the ability to control and harness its energy, both physical and spiritual, humans see fire differently than the rest of the animal kingdom.  We do not run away from it, but often gravitate towards and congregate around it.  We use it as a tool, and some of us like to use it as a toy.  We see it as both dangerous and comforting, painful and powerful.  But what is it that draws us to flames like moths to a lantern?  What is it that makes us, as Burners, surround ourselves with it, play with it, and revere it as we do in Black Rock City?

The truth is, humans have had a close relationship with fire for many hundreds of thousands of years, over a million years by the count of some scientists.  Some even speculate that harnessing fire and using it to cook food may have been key to our evolution.  Not only were we able to eat a wider variety of foods made softer and safer after cooking and potentially gain more rich protein from cooked meat, we had more time to spend together as people, preparing meals and eating them around the warm fire.

As our earlier selves sat around the protective flames in the dark night, we began to share ideas, stories, and art.  We drew on caves and invented language to communicate the burning complex ideas trapped in our brains, all while enjoying the warmth of what we once feared and fled from like the rest of the animal kingdom.  We began to ritualize the use of fire, like the forests around us, in cycles of life, death, and rebirth.  Fire is a primal element of our nature as humans, and perhaps that is one of the reasons it is so celebrated in Black Rock City.

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