George Reed: Invisible MOOP and the Net-Zero

This is one of those full-circle stories that makes our dusty hearts glow a little brighter. It’s the tale of big art that emerged from a fossil-filled trash heap, came to life in Black Rock City, then returned to its source as a proud symbol of what a community can accomplish together.

Tahoe Mack, a Las Vegas artist, tells the story of the Black Rock City Honoraria art piece she started when she was 15 years old. Her final Girl Scouts project became, oh, so much more. Over a few years, she learned to weld, fundraise, and work with acclaimed artists Dana Albany and Luis Varelo-Rico.

Her vision drew attention to an urban park with a rich archaeological history. Built from metal detritus that had accumulated there, “The Monumental Mammoth” dazzled Burners in Black Rock City 2019, and is now a permanent installation at a trailhead near the fossil field that inspired it all, and forged new connections between dozens of people.

https://www.tahoemariemack.com/themounumentalmammoth

https://protectorsoftulesprings.org/monumental-mammoth-project

https://www.danaalbanyart.com/mammoth

https://burningman.org/podcast/dana-albany-dreaming-in-metal-and-glass

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The Tip of the Iceberg is a 30-foot tall clitoris of stone, steel, and cement, fabricated to be monumental like Stonehenge, thus the nickname Clit-Henge. It aroused a lot of conversation at Black Rock City 2023. It’s the phallic symbol’s sister. It’s highly sensitive and highly talked about, and according to the artist, the more we discover about what it does, the more we can celebrate the birthright of pleasure.

Melissa Barron, a.k.a. Syn, has traveled to many places around the world that informed her lens of creativity, sustainability, and gender equality. She co-creates art, from the 2013 Temple of Whollyness, to her decade-long regeneration project Art for Trees, to this new intimate inquiry, the Tip of the Iceberg.

Journey with Syn, Andie Grace, and Stuart Mangrum through the Clit Renaissance, the rethinking of pleasure inequities, the teachings of cancer, the wisdom of aging, and the intuition of radical reciprocity. They explore these complexities, and they keep it light and bright.

Tip of the Iceberg (Burning Man 2023 Art Installations)

Tip of the Iceberg (Burning Man Gallery)

The Temple of Whollyness (Burning Man Journal)

Art for Trees (Burning Man Journal)

Syn on Social Media (Crone of Arc)

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Black Rock City is a temporary metropolis of  80,000 people who inhabit 1,600 theme camps and support camps. That means nine out of 10 participants' plans are coordinated by the Placement team — a handful of dedicated staff who decide which camps go where, and why. This year-round process is an art and a science that takes many factors into consideration — from city dynamics, to campers’ Radical Self-expressions.

As Burning Man Project’s Associate Director of City Planning, Bryant Tan manages the Placement team, and oversees the city’s annual planning and placement process. Naturally, questions about Burning Man lead to more questions.

• How do we place like-minded folks together for harmony, not monotony?
• How are resources shared between camps in this new era?
• Can you tell me how to get to Center Camp Plaza?
• What rules cultivate a spirit of lawlessness?
• Is bigger actually better?

Let’s go behind the scenes, under the clipboard, and beyond the map, exploring opportunities and obligations to iterate in this experimental city. It’s a unique test case for urban planners and any humans who live in semi-civilized situations.

“We don't want this just to be an Instagrammable bucket list thing. It's an experiment in community. We want people to show up a certain way, and so I try to just have reasonable conversations with people to help them learn what Burning Man is, and learn how to distribute leadership and responsibility, how to empower people to be their most creative selves.”

BurningMan.org: Placement Team: Level

BurningMan.org: Placement Process

HUBS: Humans Uniting for Better Sustainability

PEERS: Placement’s Exploration and Engagement Research Squad

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It's winter where we are. What are the coldest, most teeth-chattering, brrrr-iest of all the sanctioned Burning Man events around the world?

FrostBurn is one of them, and its participants make it happen in the dead of winter on purpose, annually since 2008. Subzero temperatures, rain, sleet, snow, and sometimes sunshine. Why? Because they can.

When the costumes are nothing less than comfy snow pants, when everyone is on the buddy system to ensure they survive the weather, no energy is wasted on facades and FOMO. People collaborate on Radical Self-reliance, Communal Effort, and all those cultural practices that got us where we are today.

Bexx is an event lead at FrostBurn, plays music in the Black Rock Philharmonic Orchestra, and writes academic papers about Black Rock City. She tells tales to kbot and Stuart of a winter wonderland happily crafted by hearty Burners. 

www.frostburn.org

BurningMan.org: Programs: Philosophical Center: Academics

Aural Substance: An Ethnographic Exploration of Regional Burn Soundscapes (ACADEMIA)

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Stories. This collection is from Burning Man’s oral history project, an ambitious endeavor to track down and record interviews with people who helped shape the culture as we now know it. 

Stuart and Andie “Actiongrl” Grace share some of the most memorable stories for your gratification and edification. 

• Lamplighters founder Steve Mobia talks about the San Francisco Suicide Club, the even-stranger start to the legendary Cacophony Society.
• Denzil Meyers recounts the earliest days of the Cacophony event now known as Santa Con.
• Lexie Tillotson remembers what it was like driving to Burning Man in the wayback days when you needed luck and a compass.
• Kimric Smythe recalls the year that the Man Burn into a hot mess.
• Stewart Harvey shares about traveling to Northern Ireland with artist David Best to build a Temple for “The Troubles.”

dispatch2022.burningman.org/the-philosophical-center

journal.burningman.org/category/philosophical-center

burningman.org/programs/philosophical-center

www.cacophony.org

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Many people are surprised to learn that Black Rock City is home to two full orchestras and a Playa Choir complete with a secular Sunday sermon. Since 2012 Madi has been organizing and arranging the choir’s harmonies and happenings, each year with more and more help. 

In this installment, kbot and Stuart talk with  

• Madi (Choir Director)
• Tory (Director of Dusty Productions)
• Leut (Preacher Man)

They have stories and more stories of inspiration and elevation. We get to hear many voices resonate with music, recorded live at Burning Man 2023 in the Black Rock Desert. Hallelujah!

https://playachoir.com

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Some people are surprised to learn that Black Rock City is home to not just one but two full-fledged symphony orchestras. While the Black Rock Philharmonic kicks out the classical jams, the Playa Pops brings the big-ensemble sound to popular music. 

Both are composed (ahem) of passionate volunteer musicians – classically trained, self-trained, and otherwise – who come together once a year to perform in the dust (or mud) the songs they have practiced all year at home.

In this installment, kbot and Stuart talk to members of the Playa Pops and the Black Rock Philharmonic about their process, their performances, and how the desert hates their instruments. And we get to hear some amazing live music performed by actual humans, recorded live at Burning Man 2023 in the Black Rock Desert.

https://www.playapops.com

https://blackrockphilharmonic.org

https://www.temple2023.com

https://www.michaelgarlington.com/chapel-of-babel

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Have you stumbled upon Midnight Poutine in Black Rock City? Maybe you listened to Québecois rock as you waited for some of that crispy, cheesy goodness? As with many camps on playa, Midnight Poutine is the cultural tip of the iceberg of a vast community of creativity and goings-on; this one in Montréal, Québec. 

Arno Robin, one of Montréal's cultural instigators, spoke with Stuart and kbot about his nine-year journey from Midnight Poutine, to co-creating Montréal's Burning Man Regional Event, to developing a bustling makerspace. 

It’s one of those stories we love — one that travels through Black Rock City and then keeps on going — carrying the Burning Man ethos back home to take root and sprout local mutations.

Plus… Stuart learns to swear in Québecois!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arno-robin-9b903936

https://losstidburn.org/en/home/

https://www.lespacemaker.com/en/

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Dana Albany has come a long way since her first art project in the Black Rock Desert, a scrap-wood camel that got her started making things out of found materials, from discarded metal and broken glass to sun-bleached cattle bones and deer antlers. 

She has built flammable targets for notorious machine-art groups, worked as the artist-in-residence at a San Francisco dump, and had her large-scale metal and mixed-media sculptures exhibited around the world, most recently at the “Radical Horizons” show at England’s Chatsworth House. 

She talks with Stuart about her path to becoming an artist, which began with a spur-of-the-moment trip to Burning Man in 1996, about her mentors and mentees along the way, and about the joys of working with children to create high-impact interactive art.

DanaAlbanyArt.com

chatsworth.org/news-media/news-blogs-press-releases/burning-man-about-the-sculptures

burningman.org/programs/civic-initiatives/youth-education-spaceship

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We committed to be carbon-negative by 2030. How will we do it? We have “Burning” right in our name.

When it comes to solar, biofuels, and energy banks, we have many irons in the fire, or rather, we are planting many seeds. Hear how Black Rock City is a hotbed, or rather, a garden bed, for the innovation of clean energy.

Stuart talks with George B Reed III, Associate Director of Burning Man Project’s Off Fossil Fuels program about the progress we’re making for a brighter future, or rather... yeah, a brighter future.

George shares what Burning Man’s leadership has been developing to be in integrity with our principles, from composting organic waste for food cultivation, to making renewable diesel from captured carbon. He shares stories of our community preventing and reversing damage to the climate. 

Hear how we’re collectively rewiring reality, showing our work, and sharing what we know. Here’s how you can do it for your camp, your cohort, your city.

Burning Man Project: 2030 Environmental Sustainability Roadmap

burningman.org: About Us / Sustainability (updated Oct 2023) 

The Renewables for Artists Team

The Green Theme Camp Community & BLAST

Burning Man Journal: Your Checklist for LNT in BRC (2023)

Burning Man Journal: Waking Dreams: Evoking Greener Burns (2022)

Burning Man Journal: Sustainability Initiatives on the Road to Black Rock City (2022)

Burning Man LIVE: Burning Sustainably PART 1: We Can, We Will, We Must (Aug 2022)

Burning Man LIVE: Burning Sustainably PART 2: The Road to Regeneration (Aug 2022)

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